Project Update: 01.04.2021

Hello Friends and Welcome April!

I hope all of you are doing well! I had a snowy start to April this morning, I'm already sad to have lost the warm weather, but it will return in time. Regardless of the weather, I'm looking forward to the upcoming long weekend which I'll be spending with my family!

In case you missed the announcement last week, there has been an experimental change to the posting schedule of my Project Updates. For the whole month of April, I will be posting a Project Update every Thursday! I'm interested to see how this will affect the content and length of each update. Let me know what you think of this experiment in the comments below.

So today, for the first time, I'm releasing an update with just a single week's worth of progress. Looking back at it now, I realise I've made a surprising amount of progress and I'm really proud of that! I'm excited to share it with all of you!

Recent Acquisitions

Last week, I took another visit to my local quilt store. If you've read Monday's post, you'll know I've been preparing to start basting a quilt. I'm making a second attempt at pin basting, this time on a larger quilt, so I needed to pick up more safety pins.

The first set of pins were bought on sale from Fabricland, a box of about 200 for $12. Since I was shopping at a smaller store, and because they weren't on sale, it was about $5 for a pack of 40, I bought 3 to be safe. If you're hoping to save money, a chain store is definitely the place to shop.

While I was at the quilt store, I also picked up a few more ivory and off white fat quarters for my National Quilt Museum BoM. In the past few months, I've used up most of my off white scraps in this project, so what remains is fairly small. I plan to use up my scraps first as much as possible, and only resort to using the new fat quarters when I have no other large pieces left.

I have no problem buying ivory and off white fabrics since they make a great neutral and are super versatile. They can be used in so many different projects and are great to have on hand!

Block of the Month

At the time of posting this, no new blocks have been released since my last update. But, since today is 01 April, the next National Quilt Museum block will be released today at noon! You can find instructions for all the blocks in this program on the NQM website.

Despite that, I have made some progress on this project! If you've been keeping up with these updates, you'll know that this BoM was designed using the quilt as you go method and that I haven't started it yet. But no longer Friends, because this week I finally started quilting!

If using quilt as you go, the blocks are quilted individually before being pieced together, or are pieced into portions of the finished quilt which are then quilted and assembled. Either way, quilt as you go makes domestic machine quilting much easier. Since you'll be working with smaller pieces, you don't have to manoeuvre a whole quilt through your sewing machine and worry about the weight of the rest of the quilt dragging the whole thing in directions you don't want it to go. An additional bonus is that if you make a mistake in the quilting that's somehow irreversible, it's only affecting a small part of the quilt, which could be remade if necessary.

While I could have opted to quilt the March block first, and try to complete the whole block in the same month it was assigned, I decided to finish them chronologically instead. So we are back to working with the January block, Segmented Circles.

This block was designed by Cassandra Beaver, and includes her advice for quilting. She suggests the use of a technique called matchstick quilting, long straight parallel quilting that covers the whole quilt, but with a few unique variations.

The first variation is directional. The suggestion is to incorporate both vertical and horizontal lines of quilting to emphasize the piecing. I've only worked on one quarter so far, using horizontal quilting, but the rest will be vertical.

The second variation is colour. The directions suggested the use of coloured thread that matches the segment of the circle it overlaps, creating contrast with the background. For the quilting that doesn't overlap the segmented circle, it is suggested to use thread that blends into the background. I chose a golden beige to overlap the floral segment of the circle, white thread for the other two segments, and a brown for the background.

The final variation is thread weight. Using a variety of thread weights is recommended to produce a unique textural effect. I opted to use the thread I already have, all of which is 30 weight, and instead use a mix of hand and machine quilting to create texture.

I used painters tape to guide my quilting and keep everything straight. I learned this tip from a virtual lecture by Johanna Masko, you can check out her work on Instagram @jmaskoquilts.

While I've only worked on about a quarter of the quilting, I had a lot of thread ends in the middle of my block. I know some quilters use a back stitch to lock the end of the thread in place and just cut off the tail, but I prefer to bury my threads.

Alyssa Lichner of Pile of Fabric has a great video tutorial on burying thread ends. I do it just a little different from her; I like to knot my thread four times before burying, while she only does it twice, and I usually bring my needle up through the fabric a full inch away from the end of the line of quilting, while Alyssa seems to have done only a quarter or half inch. These types of changes are totally up to your own preferences though.

I expect it to take a few more sessions before the quilting is completed, but I'm really pleased with how it's coming along so far! I love the texture created by the matchstick quilting, and I'm excited to see how it will look once I've added the hand stitching! I'm glad to have added a matchstick quilting to my arsenal and I can't wait to see how I end up using in future projects!

As for my other BoM project, Wetlands, the next block should be released on Friday! This program runs during the guild year, which starts in September and ends in June, so we are getting close to finishing.

From the samples shown on the MQG website, all of the pieced blocks have been completed and the two blocks for this month will both be applique. Those two remaining blocks are the Loon and the Dragonfly blocks. Once they've been completed, May will be finishing, and I'll have another complete quilt top!

Look forward to an update on the Wetlands BoM next week!

Original Designs

I've noticed a pattern and maybe you have too? In all of my past projects updates, I've completed one additional row and sewn it onto my Changing Pace quilt. Because this is the first time I've released a project update just one week after the previous one, I've only made partial progress on the creation of the next row.

Here are the blocks for my current row:

I have been following the same process as always; I mark my seam lines, using graphite on the white blocks and chalk on the black ones. Since chalk tends to rub off fairly quickly, I trace over those lines using thread marking. I usually travel about ¼” on the back of the fabric and about 1/16" on the front since I'm only referencing it from the back.

Next, I simply sew everything together following the marks made earlier. I use a running stitch and stabilize it with a back stitch after every fifth stitch. My current stitch count is about 10 stitches per inch. From what I've read, this is about the amount that most household sewists aim to maintain. So I'm really proud of myself for that!

I have four blocks of the current row sewn together and three more left to add before I can attach it to the rest of the quilt top. Friends, I'm thrilled to be making such consistent progress on Changing Pace and I can't wait for the whole top to be finished!

Other Quilting Projects

As for Simply Woven, after finishing the backing last week, I basted the layers of the quilt into a quilt sandwich. The details of the process are featured in my Beginner Basting post.

For now, check out what I believe is the only perfect corner in this quilt top (and a less than perfect one);

You'll see lots more imperfect piecing in my basting post on Monday. This was only the second or third quilt top I'd pieced and it had a lot of edges to align, so I'm really proud I did this well! If you'd like to try Simply Woven for yourself, Jessica Kelly designed it as a free pattern. Instructions can be found on the Moda blog.

Mending

After last week's update, I thought I was done with the fox pajamas, but it ended up taking a few more days beyond the completion of the second pocket. In case you're wondering, I was able to finish it within a few days of the last update, just like I said I would!

Before I return a mended garment to its owner, I always make sure to check it over for loose threads and any additional mending that may need to be fixed. Since I basically remand the fox pajamas, I wasn't expecting to need to do more mending, but I found a few places where I hadn't quite managed to cut away the worn out and thinning bits of the fabric. I chose to darn those patches to fill them in.

I didn't think about taking pictures before I started darning, so here's a piece of the fabric that I cut away that has a similar amount of wear. As you can see, it's not exactly a hole yet, just very thin and in need of reinforcement. This piece was once the top of the waistband, so it was being tugged on every time the garment was worn.

As for the worn bits that made their way back into to the pajamas, one was on a fox's tail and one in the mint background. I had no problem matching the tail, apparently I have a variety of orange embroidery floss. The mint was much more of a challenge for me. I didn't really have any thread that matched it at all, so I tried to blend colours by using green on the warp and blue on the weft. Here's how they both turned out;

I can't say I'm thrilled with the way the blending technique turned out, it blends in way better in the picture than in person. But the darning is pretty sturdy, and the owner isn't bothered by it at all, so I'm satisfied.

I am self taught at darning, I don't even know what resources I've looked at while learning since I think it's been different each time. I used a method similar to the hand sewing portion of this article by the Sew Guide. I'm glad to have gotten more practice at darning; it's a great skill to know and can really extend the life of your clothing. I definitely need more practice, but the only way to practice is to darn more things, so I guess you'll be seeing more of this in future updates!

That's all for this week, but I'm really pleased with the progress I've made. I would love to know what you've been up to, feel free to share your own project update in the comments below or send me an email through my contact page!

If you've made any of the patterns I'm working on, I would love to see those as well! It's so interesting how every quilt maker interprets colour placement and pattern direction in a totally unique way! To see what I'm up to between updates, follow me on Instagram @vafibrearts or join my Facebook group.