Project Update: 13.12.2022

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

The last of the frigid Autumn weather hung on tightly, but with some fresh snowfall over the weekend, it's beginning to look like the Winter weather is here to stay. Of course, it's hard to say for sure, so I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what the last week of Autumn truly has in store!

Regardless of what the end of the season may bring for me weather-wise, I'm sure it will come along with plenty of opportunities to continue working on my plethora of sewing and quilt-making projects!

Now, after nearly a month since my last Project Update, it feels like the perfect time to share my recent progress on those many projects! Most of these you will be familiar with from previous updates, but there is one exciting new pattern I've started working on as well!

Friends, I can't wait to share all of them with you!

The $3.31 Quilt

The start of this mystery quilt has been an amazing adventure into pieced animal quilt blocks!

Last month, I shared my recently completed beaver block. Since then, the second block was released, giving my beaver a new polar bear friend!

The original polar bear pattern was a really cute block with a lot of goofy charm. But after a glance at the pattern, I couldn't seem to get over the proportions of the design—I felt like the bear's body was a little too small for the size of his head.

Being me, I knew I'd inevitably start twisting and altering the pattern anyway, so I thought this would be a great place to start!

I began by drawing a to-scale box based on the dimensions of the finished block shared in the original instructions. While I'm changing the pattern, I still want my new block to fit within the space of the original. Using reference images from Google, I sketched a polar bear to fit inside of the box, changing up the pose to be sitting with his feet stuck out.

For some reason, when I read that we would be piecing a polar bear block in November, I had pictured this pose. I think it's really cute!

Once happy with the sketch, I simplified the design into straight line shapes, trying my best to consider the style of the original designer, John McPhail. It was a lot of fun trying to mimic another designer's piecing style! I realized how different his process is from my usual way of designing a block!

With my new pattern prepared, I jumped right into piecing, and very quickly, the block was complete!

For the bear's head, I followed basically the same shapes as the original, so that was very similar, but the change of pose makes my block totally unique! I think you can tell that my block wasn't designed by the same person as the original, but I'm really proud of how the block turned out and I think it will still look amazing when combined with the others!

Just one week left before the next $3.31 Quilt block is released. Will it be the loon, caribou, maple leaf, or something totally unexpected? I'll have to wait and see!

The $3.31 Quilt is the current Canadian Quilters Association members mystery quilt. It was designed by John McPhail of Art East Quilting Co.

Chilhowie Mystery Quilt

While waiting for the release of more block instructions from my ongoing quilt-alongs, I was caught by a strong desire to do some machine piecing. And with all of my current projects caught up, I had no choice but to start a new one!

I decided to join Bonnie Hunter's currently on-going mystery quilt-along! Many members of my guild love her patterns and have participated in her quilt-alongs in the past, so I thought I would give it a try too!

I started with colour selection; the pattern calls for four different colours, but I decided to use only three. Not only will this be an interesting challenge for myself, but it will also result in some interesting and unique changes to the motif of the finished quilt!

I decided to work with purples, pale greens, and off-whites as my colours. I really love how they look together so far, and based on the feedback I've received from the other participants, they love it as well!

This quilt-along runs at a much faster pace than the block of the month projects I usually participate int. Instructions are released every Friday for about two months until the quilt is complete. To fit the mystery theme, each set of instructions is called a clue, and so far, three have been released.

Clue no.1 featured a selection of 9-patch and 4-patch units. I don't know how these will be used, but I suspect they will become a secondary block in the pattern.

For clue no.2, we made a selection of strip units with corner triangles. I saw some people calling these long necked geese, which is a really cute name since they are very similar to flying geese units, just longer. I think these will be used for the boarder, based on the number of units and the expected quilt size.

Last Friday was clue no.3, which I managed to finish over the weekend. It featured a selection of quarter square triangles. I think these will be used in the primary block pattern and believe they will be the focus of the quilt's design.

All of my guesses about the use of each type of unit in the finished quilt are based on personal opinion and on patterns I noticed throughout Bonnie Hunter's past mystery quilt designs. Just like everyone else, I will have to wait and see how they actually end up being used!

Regardless of the accuracy of my pattern speculations, I'm really happy with how my blocks are coming together so far and I can't wait for the next clue to come out on Friday!

The Chilhowie mystery quilt was designed by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville. The pattern will be free until the quilt-along ends in mid Winter of 2023.

The Generations Quilt

Moving away from quilt-along projects, let's take a look at the Generations Quilt!

Since my last Project Update, I've met with Mom and Grandma to discuss our individual progress, help each other prep new blocks, and to sit and sew together. I recently shared a post elaborating on that meeting if you're interested in learning more!

Throughout this Autumn, I've aspired to complete one generations block for every month that passes. So far, I've surpassed that goal every month and completed multiple blocks. And while I haven't gotten started on my block for December, I do have four completed Six Pointed Star blocks from November!

These Star blocks use a block and white metallic theme for the stars, offset by a bright yellow background.

I really love how these four blocks look together—they're really bold and eye catching—but I'm not sure they make quite as much sense when singled out. I really hope they end up staying together in the same quilt when we finally get that far along.

With the completion of those blocks, I've now made 19 Six Pointed Star blocks and 13 Dresden Plates. Clearly I've made more progress on the Star blocks recently, so perhaps for December, I should focus on finishing a Dresden?

The Generations Quilt is a collaborative, intergenerational quilt project focused on completing quilts using blocks left behind by my Great Grandmother after she passed away. Read more about this project in my introductory post from Autumn 2021.

Deep Frost Mage's Robe

As another hand sewing project, I have been making slow but steady progress on the applique for my deep frost mage's robe!

In my last update, I shared the progress I had made on one of the front panels of the robe. At that time, I'd only completed the bottom boarder, but since then, I've added a small spiral and started appliqueing the large one!

With so many tiny pixels being appliqued by hand, I'm now very confused about how I initially thought I could finished this project in just one month. Even with the long process, I'm still very much enjoying this project and am more excited than ever to see how it turns out!

To learn more about the inspiration for this robe, check out my Deep Frost Mage's Robe Update post from October!

Looking back, I've made a lot of progress on so many different projects over the past few weeks! It has been amazing to see the different directions that each project is taking, to experience the anticipation for quilt-along releases, and to see my own touch put onto patterns and projects!

But through that excitement, there is a little bit of guilt. I haven't made any new progress on quilting Simply Woven. By now, that quilt has become somewhat notorious, or perhaps my aversion to quilting my unfinished projects deserves the notoriety, either way, it has taken far too long to complete and is making me feel as though I've left the quilt unfinished.

I'm not sure how exactly I plan to deal with that, so I'll need to put a little more thought into Simply Woven. We'll find out later what I decide.

In the meantime, you can visit me on Instagram @v.a.fibre.arts for updates on my projects, and possibly a sneak peak on the progress of Simply Woven if I make any.

If you have any questions or suggestions about any of my ongoing projects, please share those in the comments below! And if you're participating in any of the same quilt-alongs as me, I would love to know which one!

With so many projects currently ongoing, I'm thrilled to be able to share so much progress on so many of them. I can't wait to see what I get up to with the rest of this month!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA