Project Update: 14.05.2024

vafibrearts
May 14, 2024
4 min read

Hello Friends and Welcome!

Last week, I shared the final instalment of the Stars of the City block of the month quilt along! It's always sad to have a quilt along adventure come to an end, but I haven't yet completed either version of that pattern that I'm working on, so I still have lots of fun ahead of me!

And along with those two quilts, I've been working on a few other projects I'm excited to share!

However, progress was a little slow. I had an ingrown nail on my thimble finger, so I was sewing a little slower and had to take frequent breaks. It's mostly healed now and I'm excited to get back to sewing!

But before I do, let's take a look at the progress I've made so far!

Ice Cream Soda

Last time I worked on this, I had 19 completed blocks, with one still in progress and the centres cut for four more.

I finished the in progress block shortly after my previous post, and since then, haven't made any progress on the centres I had cut.

I planned a bit of a break from this to focus on Stars of the City before the quilt along wrapped up, but now that it has, I'm excited to put together those centres and see how they grow!

The Ice Cream Soda pattern was designed by Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth. It is currently running as a quilt along through July 2024.

Stars of the City

Speaking of Stars of the City, I've continued to quilt the original sample quilt!

I've mostly been working to fill in the background grid so I can remove all the basting pins, but I did quilt one new star on a whim!

Still lots of progress left to go, but I'm excited to get back to it!

Stars of the City is my own original design. The quilt along recently wrapped up, with the final step being posted just last week.

Stars of the Lily Pond

I shared an update on my second version of the Stars of the City pattern in last week's pattern release, but I wanted to share it again in this project update!

I haven't made any additional chunks of this quilt, but I'm excited to get the rest of it put together!

This quilt is based on my original pattern, Stars of the City.

Generations Quilt

With so many quilts in progress, it's exciting to be able to say that one is getting close to completion!

In this case, complete is a relative term since I'm just completing blocks and not finishing quilts just yet. Once my blocks are complete though, I'll be able to check in with Mom and Grandma, and when we're all ready, we can continue on to piecing the quilts!

For now though, I've finished appliqueing another set of Six Pointed Stars!

These yellow, orange, and red stars on a pink background may not be my usual choice of colours, but has been a fun experiment! I really love the contrast between the darker and lighter halves of the star!

With those three finished, I started working on the next set as well!

So far, I've appliqued one of my pink and teal stars onto a backing. I would have preferred a solid background fabric, but my local quilt store didn't have any solids that were anywhere close to the colour I was looking for.

Despite that, I'm really happy with how this block has come together! I really like the various levels of contrast, with some prints blending into each other and others standing out strongly!

With these four blocks now complete, I'm up to a total of 30 Dresden Plate blocks and 26 Six Pointed Stars. And with five additional Star appliques already pieced, I will have reached my goal of 30 of each block pattern very soon!

The Generations Quilt is a collaborative project featuring two traditional block patterns; the Six Pointed Star and the Dresden Plate.

Block Exchange

The final project I worked on recently was a fun block exchange between friends!

I was asked to contribute a brightly coloured star block on a black background, and that description immediately reminded me of my Hexie Harvest quilt, which I still have some fabric left over from!

I wanted to use all eight colours in this star, so I drew up a really basic Lemoyne Star, then added a second round of points around the outside to make a larger and more complex design!

I know this isn't an original idea, I looked it up in the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and it seems to be called the Tennessee Star, but I did piece my background a little differently than the traditional block is done.

Despite my lack of originality, I'm thrilled with how the block turned out and am especially impressed with the way my seams have come together in the block centre!

And now I can't wait to see what my friend makes with it!

Friends, I've had so much fun working on each of these projects! I'm excited to finish this phase of the Generations Quilt, to continue working on both versions of Stars of the City, and to see where Ice Cream Soda takes me!

I still haven't made any additional progress towards custom labels, but I'm sure I'll continue to think about it and feel bad that I haven't started!

And I would love to hear what all of you have been up to since last time too! Please share stories, photos, and challenges in the comments below, via email, or by tagging me on Instagram! I always love seeing your projects and can't wait to see how they're coming along!