Project Update: 19.11.2024

Hello Friends and Welcome!

As Autumn continues to creep by, Winter has been hesitant to make an early appearance. Normally, by this time in November we would have seen more than a few snowy days, but this month has been unseasonably warm and rainy.

There's still hope for snow later in the month, but we'll have to wait and see if that forecast comes to pass!

I've borne those rainy days working away at several quilting and sewing projects and am excited to finally share my progress!

Ice Cream Soda

Looking back at the Ice Cream Soda blocks I was working on during my last project update, I've discovered I'm missing several!

Specifically, it's these three blocks I can't seem to find. I've looked everywhere I could think of; under the couch where I do most of my hand sewing, in all of my ongoing project boxes, in the bags I take when visiting my Mom; but they haven't reappeared.

There's always a chance I left them at my Mom's house the last time I visited, but I can't check there myself, so I'll have to look another time. In the meantime, I hope these missing blocks reappear somewhere!

I suppose the good news of this situation is that I only lost three of my four completed blocks, here is the last one:

Even though the earlier block I compared this one to uses a gold print in the third round, I decided I wanted to use the gold print for this block's third round too. I think the difference in the colour and scale of the prints is enough that these blocks won't feel like duplicates.

After completing that set of blocks, I got to work on the next four!

Each of the blocks in this set is visually unique, featuring a different combination of colours and prints, and each has a different degree of busyness.

Admittedly, the bottom block may be a touch too busy, so I might replace the outer round with something a little more subtle in the future. I am quite happy with the other three blocks though!

After completing these, I looked through the fabric set aside for this project and worried that I didn't have enough to finish my blocks. I bought a few new prints to round out the fabric requirements, and hopefully these additions will be useful in discouraging any duplicate blocks!

I've gotten started on the newest set of blocks, some of which feature those new prints, and have completed two blocks so far!

The other two blocks are only in their first rounds, and I haven't yet put much thought into which prints I want to use to continue them. I'm looking forward to seeing how they finally turn out!

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

Blackwork Roads

As for my other ongoing quilting project, Blackwork Roads is just as far along as when I released the November chunk instructions earlier this month, but I felt it should still be featured in a project update!

As I've previously shared, there's only one chunk left for me to complete. It's located in the lower left corner, so the bottom row of the quilt isn't connected to the upper part just yet, but once it's done, the quilt top will come together quickly!

I can't wait to see it come together!

Blackwork Roads is my own original design. It's currently running as a quilt along here on my blog, check out the September instructions to get started!

Old Town Mystery Quilt

This next project is one I'm just getting started on; Bonnie Hunter's annual Winter mystery quilt along!

This year's project, entitled Old Town, was inspired by the designer's recent trip to Poland. As usual, the pattern is free to download in instalments as the quilt along proceeds, but in a few months, the full pattern will be available in her store.

If you're interested in participating, please check out the full introduction and fabric requirements on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog!

For my quilt, I'm once again planning my own unique colour selection rather than following the suggestions by the designer.

The colours I've chosen were largely inspired by an artist named Andy Kehoe; whose work features a variety of fantastical scenes and landscapes, typically rendered at sunset or twilight. I found myself really drawn to the use of bright, often riotous colours in the backgrounds, with the foreground detailed in the blue light of dusk.

With that in mind, I drew up this colour selection:

The variety of bright colours across the top will be used throughout the background, with the blues and greys featured as my accent colours!

To see how I like them together, I drew up a few digital quilts! Note that Old Town is a mystery quilt, so I don't actually know what the quilt looks like just yet, these are just speculation.

The leftmost quilt was drafted by breaking the fabric requirements down into percentages; roughly 50% background, 20% navy, 13% grey, and 17% dark blue; then finding a traditional quilt block that could be broken down to a similar ratio. I used the traditional South Carolina block for this.

The middle sample is last year's mystery quilt, Indigo Way, and the rightmost is Chilhowie from the year before. I wanted to include some of Bonnie Hunter's other quilt designs as samples so I could see how my colours might look in her style!

Admittedly, Indigo Way was probably not the best choice for a sample since there isn't quite as much visible background in that pattern, I expect Old Town will turn out much more like one of the other samples. Regardless, I'm quite happy with the effect the colours are creating and I'm excited to start pulling fabric!

Knowing how busy the background will likely be, I decided to use solids for my three accent fabrics. Don't take the colours in the picture too seriously, the lighting today wasn't very good for photos.

I bought the yardage I would need over the weekend while visiting a local quilt store with my Mom! The brightly coloured background fabrics will be pulled from my stash of fat quarters, remnants, and scraps, which I have yet to start sorting through. I'm excited to get into that soon though!

Finally, since I've mentioned Indigo Way, I should probably acknowledge that I still plan to finish assembling those blocks before getting started on Old Town, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. More updates on that quilt soon!

Old Town, Indigo Way, and Chilhowie are all designs by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville. Old Town is currently running as a free mystery quilt along.

Pajama Pants

With all the pattern drafting posts I've shared over the past month, I'm excited to finally share some progress on the actual garment!

For my first official test of my custom pants pattern, I used a space themed flannel fabric I'd bought many months ago for this purpose!

All the mockups I've made so far used just the four leg pieces—the left front and back, and the right front and back—but for my actual garment, I also included pockets, cuff facings, and a waist facing that doubles as an elastic casing!

I'm really happy with the fit of these pants, as well as how all the little details turned out! And though I haven't yet finished taking the basting thread out of the waistband, I have worn these around the house a little!

And as I shared in last week's drafting post, I have a second flannel print waiting to be made into another pair of pants. I can't wait to put those together too!

Pajama pants made from an original, self drafted pattern.

After looking back on all the work I've done over the past month, it's exciting to see quite a lot of progress! I hope to see just as much in the weeks and months ahead!

And Friends, I would love to hear about what all of you have been up to as well! Please share the projects you're working on, be they fibre arts or something else entirely, in the comments below! You can also send me a private correspondence via email or share posts by tagging me on Instagram!

If you're also planning to get started on the Old Town mystery quilt, I would love to see what your plans are for fabric selection and can't wait to see how each of our quilts turn out!

With all of that said, I'm excited to get back to stitching!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA