Project Update: 14.02.2022

Hello Friends and Welcome!

As the frigid winter weather persists, I find myself enjoying the crisp winter mornings! Pink streaked skys, frosted tree limbs, and the quiet of a world still asleep.

While it's a really beautiful and peaceful time of year, I'm really not fond of the cold temperatures and spend most of my time inside, avoiding the cold and working on my projects. And with my sewing machine recently returned from servicing, I've been able to jump back into several of the ongoing projects I am most excited about!

So Friends, let's take a look at what I've been working on!

Machine Maintenance

Before I get into the exciting bits about projects progress, I wanted to share a brief PSA about sewing machine maintenance.

Maintenance is important for keeping your machine in good working order. And while there is some regular day to day maintenance that you can easily do at home - clearing fluff out of the bobbin casing, oiling exposed mechanisms, and so on - sewing machines also require deeper cleaning and oiling on occasion.

I'm sure there are many sources online that can teach you how to do this yourself, but there is some risk of unknowingly making adjustments that change the way your machine works. Perhaps one day I will have the knowledge and confidence to give this a try myself, but for now I prefer to have my machine serviced by a proper sewing machine mechanic.

As you may remember me mentioning several weeks ago, the reason I brought my machine for servicing was that my tension was very far off what it should have been, and changing the needle and rethreading the machine had had no effect.

As it turns out, my tension issue was actually caused by a lack of internal maintenance. The mechanisms deep inside my machine had tightened up due to not having enough oil and collecting too much fluff. This was throwing off the regular balance of my machine tension.

And to give you an idea of what to expect if you're looking for maintenance on your own machine; mine took about 2 weeks between drop off and pick up and cost about $95 CAD, including the price of a new package of bobbins that I picked up while I was there!

MQG Mystery BoM

After servicing was complete, the first project I worked on was the MQG Mystery BoM project with my Mom!

We got together over the weekend to work on the recently released February blocks, listed in the pattern as block #2! These blocks use a variety of flying geese units to create an interesting mosaic pattern.

Mom and I made our geese using the four at a time flying geese method, which was new to us both. It was a lot of fun experimenting with this new method and I'm looking forward to trying it with other projects in the future!

Despite how quickly the flying geese units come together using this method, there were a lot of pieces to cut and a lot of geese to piece, so the February blocks took quite some time to complete. I managed to finish all four of mine in the time we had to work on them together, but Mom only completed the pieceing of the geese and one full block. She will be saving the others for a day when she has more time and I can’t wait to see how they will turn out!

My own blocks turned out a little oddly.

This month’s pattern was pretty different from all the other blocks made so far. It incorporates a new colour that I’m not used to seeing in my blocks and has significantly less background fabric than the others. Neither of these is a bad thing exactly, it just makes the new blocks feel a little different.

But when I put them together with a few of my other blocks, the pattern suddenly feels like it makes a lot more sense:

A quilt needs some busier blocks to balance the more plain, background-heavy blocks. Of course, since this is a mystery quilt, I don’t actually know if this is how the blocks come together in the end, but I do really love the effect of the coppery diamonds that form where the blocks meet!

If you’re interested in making the MQG Mystery BoM project for yourself, check out the MQG website for pattern instructions!

National Quilt Museum 2021 BoM

In addition to my guild's current block of the month project, I also made some progress on last year's NQM BoM!

You may remember that I fell behind on this project pretty early on, but as one of my goals for this winter, I really want to keep making progress on this project! I love the idea of the quilt as you go technique, which is what originally drew me to participate in this BoM to start with, and want to finish a full sized quilt to see if I actually like the finished result.

Back in December I shared my process for redesigning the May wholecloth block to suit my fabric selection and personal interests. I drafted this Eiffel Tower inspired quilting design, which includes just a little of my accent fabric appliqued under the quilting.

While my machine was away receiving maintenance, I focused on hand sewing the accent applique onto the block background. I'm really happy with the contrast it creates and I'm hoping it doesn't overshadow the quilting that is to come.

With my machine back in the studio, I'm hoping to begin working on the quilted elements soon. I can't wait to see how this block turns out!

This original design was inspired by Becky Glasby's block, Honoring Today's Quilters. That block, as well as the other eleven used in this BoM quilt, is available as a free pattern on the NQM website! They've also started a new 2022 block of the month project, found at the same link.

Generations Quilt

As another hand sewing project that I could work on while my machine was away, I spent some time on my most recent set of Dresden Plate blocks for the Generations Quilt project!

I had started piecing these at the end of January, you can see the fabric that inspired my colour choice in my last project update, and finished both of them earlier this month. I really love the random distribution of prints and colours and think that it matches the feeling of the fabric that originally inspired it!

With the applique shapes pieced, I started testing backgrounds. I wanted to use a neutral fabric that would allow the colours in the Dresden Plate to stand out, but was also looking for a warm shade that would help to counteract the coolness of the blues. I decided on a golden beige colour. I love the way it sets off the blues, creating contrast but not conflict!

The fabric really needs to be pressed, but I'm looking forward to having two new blocks completed for the Generations Quilt soon!

Simply Woven

Since getting my machine back, I haven't made any new progress on Simply Woven.

Of course, I did make some very good progress the week before when I challenged myself to quilt Simply Woven every day for a whole week. I'm still very impressed with myself for all the work I did during that time. Planning changes to the quilted design ensured it matched my current skills, interests, and goals, while working at it consistently kept me inspired!

I'm really looking forward to making more progress on the walking foot quilting now that my machine is feeling better. However, my hand quilting prospects are still a little bleak.

Although I spent several weeks researching and reaching out to quilt stores about 12 weight thread for this project, I haven't had much luck finding what I'm looking for. I think my best course of action is to visit a local store in person to set up a custom order, but I won't be able to do that for a few more weeks at least, then it will take some time to arrive…

Although this is a little discouraging, I know I can still make progress on the machine quilting in the meantime, or on some of my other projects, and I'm looking forward to some hand quilting in the future!

If you'd like to make a Simply Woven quilt for yourself, check out Jessica Kelly's free pattern, available on the Moda blog!

Though it felt like a very long two weeks without my machine, I still managed to get a lot of work done on some of my winter projects! While some was quite significant, others were fairly minimal. I'm very proud of everything I've worked on and am looking forward to more progress on all of these projects to come!

Friends, if you'd like to share the projects you've been working on, I would love to hear about them in the comments below! You can also share them with me on Instagram by tagging me @vafibrearts! I always love seeing your work and hearing about the projects that inspire you!

I try to share information on my own ongoing projects on Instagram as well. Feel free to visit me there to see what I’m working on between updates!

Next week, I will be taking a break for the long weekend and won't be posting, but look forward to more exciting creative content on 28 February!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA