Project Update: 17.12.2024

Hello Friends and Welcome!

Last week, I took a little break from the Fibre Arts blog to spend some time with family. We left the cold and frozen landscapes of Ontario behind and travelled South to the Dominican Republic for a week of warm ocean breezes!

There was a lot of rain while we were there, but it typically blew over quickly, revealing sunny skies. And even when it was raining, it was a warm rain, much better than the frozen rain I was told was happening back home!

And we found evidence of that frozen rain when we returned to an icy mound left by the snowplow at the end of our driveway. It made parking the car a little difficult, but we did get through it!

I thought about bringing some hand sewing with me on that trip, but decided against it since I was worried about losing pieces or tools so far away from home. Now that I'm back, I'd like to take a look through my recent progress as a little reminder of where I left off!

Let's take a look!

Ice Cream Soda

Last time, I was working on a set of four new Ice Cream Soda blocks; two were finished, and two were still on their first rounds. I've done a little more work on those in progress blocks, adding a second round and starting to think about what prints would look good for the third!

For the second rounds of both blocks, I chose a very subtle, tone on tone print. These will let me feature much busier prints in the last round of these blocks!

Both blocks are currently very low value, meaning very light in colour, and I think I'd like to keep them this way. Several of the other blocks I've made recently have been pretty dark and intense, so some lighter blocks will help break up the quilt top!

For the yellow block, I wanted to make a subtle gradient. The central round is the most intense yellow, followed by a pale yellow, then a white print for the third round!

I've cut the pieces for the third round of this block already, but I'll need to fold and baste the edges of those pieces before I can stitch them to the rest of the block!

I've also been thinking about the print I'd like to use for the third round of my grey block!

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the central print of this block is white with a gold and silver stripe. The grey print in the second round pulls out the silver stripe, so I wanted a print with some gold to use in the third round!

Since the gold in the first round is so subtle, I didn't want an all gold print, so I'm thinking about using this gold, grey, and white honeycomb print. It has a little bit of every colour used in the block, so I think it'll be a good way to finish the block!

Ice Cream Soda was designed by Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth.

Indigo Way Mystery Quilt

Something new I've been working on since my last update is Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt from last Winter; Indigo Way!

New is a bit of a relative term here though, since this quilt was already in progress, I just haven't worked on it since the Springtime. But before I get started on this year's mystery, which already has four sets of instructions released, I wanted to get all of my Indigo Way blocks pieced together!

I've already finished making all of my A blocks, so I just have to finish piecing my B blocks!

Here is the layout of the B blocks, with a square in a square unit at the centre, four triangle in a square units, and four split triangle units!

The mix of 45° and 30° angles in the B block creates some really interesting curved illusions when many of them are tiled together!

However, this isn't how these blocks will be used in the finished quilt, so I wanted to see how they would look when laid out with the A blocks!

To be honest, both layouts look a little bit crazy with all the different prints and patterns being used, but that's part of the charm and beauty of making a scrap quilt!

I'm also trying something new with gradients in this project that I've never explored before, and I don't have enough space in a well-lit room to take a picture of the larger gradient effect, so this may turn out to be one of those quilts that is more striking from far away? Of course, we won't know whether that's the case until we can see the quilt all together, and I'm not that far along yet!

And though I've made lots of these full blocks, the Indigo Way pattern uses an en pointe layout, which requires some half sized and quarter blocks too!

The half blocks are made using whole units, which helps to avoid accidentally stretching bias edges, then the excess is trimmed away later. I drew a dashed line across the block to show what still needs trimming!

So far, I've only made two of these half B blocks, so I still have several to finish, but I've made so much piecing progress already this month!

Indigo Way was designed by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.

Old Town Mystery Quilt

And though I'm not quite done with Indigo Way just yet, I have been keeping an eye on the Old Town updates as they're released!

A few of the clues so far have instructions to make units in 25 sets of four or eight. Based on the way past mystery quilts have been written, that indicates to me that the quilt will likely have 25 blocks, and knowing that the finished quilt will be square, it feels safe to assume the quilt will be five blocks high by five blocks wide!

However, some of the other clues have had really strange numbers of units that aren't evenly divisible into 25. This doesn't necessarily disprove my theory, rather it suggests there is more to the quilt design than just five rows of five blocks.

One possibility is that those other units will be used in a pieced border, which are really common on Bonnie Hunter's patterns. After a little bit of math though, I don't believe that's how they'll be used.

I think the most likely use for those units will be a combination of use in blocks and in sashing.

Of course, we won't find out whether my theories so far are true or not until more clues are released, I can't wait!

Old Town was designed by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville. It is currently running as a free mystery quilt along, scheduled to end in January 2025.

Friends, that is everything I've worked on in the last couple of weeks!

I'm so happy with the progress I've made on each project! Slowly piecing more Ice Cream Soda blocks has been so relaxing; seeing my Indigo Way blocks coming together after so many months is really exciting; and the ongoing mystery quilt, Old Town, offers a fun little puzzle to solve!

I have a few other projects on the go that haven't received much recent attention, but I'm hoping to get back to those in the coming weeks!

And, of course, I would love to hear about the projects you've been working on as well! Please share stories about your own creative works, be they fibre arts or something else entirely, in the comments below, by tagging me on Instagram, or by sending me an email directly!

Seeing your work and learning more about other creative outlets is always so inspiring to me!

With Winter fast approaching, a new season of projects is on the horizon! I can't wait to see what we'll make together in the months to come!