Project Update: 12.03.2024

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

With the first few weeks of March now behind us, it's really starting to feel as though Spring is on its way! There's another week yet before it formally arrives, but it has definitely been making it's coming known!

This past weekend was quite rainy, and though it did turn to snow on Sunday, the weather warmed overnight and the snow has vanished once again, making way for budding plants, sunny breezes, and robin songs!

And with the seasons fighting to change outside, I've continued to work on my projects indoors, where there's no rain and no snow. I can't wait to show you!

Ice Cream Soda

This first project is one I've been posting about a lot recently as I've only just gotten started. It is, of course, the Ice Cream Soda quilt!

As per the plan I shared in my previous project update, I prepared pieces for 15 block centres which I stitched together over the February long weekend. Some of them were fussy cut to emphasize certain elements of their prints, others were strip cut to minimize fabric waste, but all of them turned out really beautifully!

Since piecing them, five of these block centres have remained as just centres, but the others have been expanded, with additional rounds adding to the detail and charm of each!

The second round of the Ice Cream Soda quilt blocks is a kite shape, which is about twice the size of the diamond pieces used in the block centres. These kites turn the blocks from a small star shape, to a larger star shape, and through colour selection and fussy cutting, this round really transforms the block!

At this point, each block started to develop a unique personality and voice. Some of them gave me a strong impression of what fabrics should be used for the final round, while others left room for experimentation! Moving into round three, I was excited to see how each block would transform again!

The third and final round used pentagonal crown shaped pieces to fill the space between the points of the star shaped centres and define the shape of the blocks. This round also has the most surface area in the block, so the fabric chosen has a huge impact on the feeling of the finished quilt block!

For some of my blocks, the final round was the last detail needed to pull the whole block together, and they look so much better now than I could have imagined! Others, I'm not quite as happy with and would use a different fabric for in the future. But I don't dislike any of my finished blocks and I learned so much about fussy cutting and fabric selection while putting them together, and those lessons will be so helpful as I continue to piece this quilt over the coming months!

Of the 15 block centres I started back in February, eight of them have been transformed into complete Ice Cream Soda blocks, two have their second round, and five remain as just centres. That's not quite the number of blocks I had hoped to finish by now, but it's a good start nonetheless, and I'm looking forward to continuing to work on them!

Ice Cream Soda was designed by Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth. The pattern is currently running as a quilt along scheduled to end in June 2024.

Indigo Way

This next project was once a quilt along as well, but one I wasn't able to finish with the rest of the participants. Despite falling behind, I've continued to enjoy piecing together the Indigo Way quilt at my own pace!

In my last update, I had only just started working on clue seven, which featured quarter square triangle units and Card Trick blocks. Since then, I've continued putting together block after block and have now completed all the blocks for that clue!

I've made traditional Card Trick blocks before, but the colour placement in the Indigo Way version of this block give it a totally unique appearance!

I also had a friend point out how aquatic my colours make these blocks! The various blues and teals are reminiscent of the sea, with coral pinks and lighter accents for foam! Quite a poetic statement and a colour combination I've had so much fun working with!

Moving forward, I think I'll mash together clues five and eight, working on those at the same time. Clue five is a square in a square unit, which is the central unit needed for the blocks assembled in clue eight, so it makes sense to me to just finish them all as one step like with clue seven!

But before I get to that, I think I'll pack up Indigo Way for at least a few days so I can clean up my sewing room. I've made a bit of a mess, whoops!

Indigo Way was designed by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville. It ran as a quilt along from December 2023 to January 2024.

Generations Quilt

For my final project, I'm returning to hand piecing with the Generations Quilt!

Over the past few weeks, I finished piecing the applique shape for my remaining three floral Dresden Plate blocks.

As mentioned previously, this busy print doesn't result in a seamless flow from one piece to the next, but I've done my best to place like pieces together so the block doesn't feel too chaotic.

It took a lot of fiddling with and rearranging the petals until I reached a layout I was happy with, but it was definitely worth the effort!

And with the applique shapes pieced, I was able to spend this past weekend sewing all four Dresdens to their respective background squares! This brings me to a total of 30 completed Dresden Plate blocks!

Speaking of what I did this weekend, I was actually sewing my Generations blocks alongside my Mom and Grandma, who also made some progress on their contributions to this quilt!

After counting, Grandma has eight completed Six Pointed Stars, with three more ready to be appliqued, as well as eight completed Dresden Plates, and one more that was almost finished being appliqued before our visit ended! Mom had left her completed blocks at home and only brought the in progress blocks, but she finished at least two Six Pointed Stars while we were together, and I'm sure is somewhere around 15 of each pattern completed!

It has been so much fun working on this project with Mom and Grandma! Both of them have different levels of sewing and quilting experience than I do, and all of us have unique styles that are coming out in the blocks we make together! I'm excited to continue working on this collaboration and to see how the quilts turn out!

The Generations Quilt is a collaborative quilting project that uses two traditional quilt blocks; the Dresden Plate and the Six Pointed Star. Templates for these blocks were drafted from existing quilt blocks made by my Great Grandmother prior to 1990.

Friends, I have had so much fun working on each of these different patterns! The blocks, colours, and methods are so unique from one project to the next that there's always something fun and interesting for me to do!

And after sharing some of my recent progress, I'm interested to see what all of you have been working on! Feel free to share stories and photos in the comments below, privately via email, or by tagging me on Instagram! I love seeing what other creatives are working on, and it's always exciting to learn about mediums I'm not familiar with!

I should probably spend some time cleaning up my sewing room now, with all the mess I made working on these projects. But I hope to be back to stitching again soon!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA