Project Update: 22.04.2021

Hello Friends and Welcome!

This week, I've made a lot of progress on a variety of projects, and I'm excited to share what I've been doing! What I'm not excited about is the snow. In the last few days, it's gotten pretty cold again, and yesterday it snowed overnight. I miss being warm, I guess I'll have to fix that by making more quilts!

Just as a reminder, my Project Updates are currently being posted on an experimental schedule. For the entire month of April, I've been posting them every week. Next week, I'll announce whether I'll be continuing with weekly posts, or returning to my previous schedule of posting every second week. I would love to know your opinion as well, please leave a comment below letting me know which posting schedule you prefer!

Now, to share what I've been working on!

Block of the Month

I have continued progress on my Wetlands BoM quilt. At this point, I've deviated from the instructions and am working on some of my own additions. Since May is the last month of this BoM program, I'll need to have all my extra pieces ready before the end of this month.

As you already know, I've made several extra applique blocks, as well as some duplicate pieced blocks so I'll end up with a larger quilt. I've also opted to make my quilt square. Based on the layout I've planned, I needed to make four background blocks cut to 7 ½" square to fill in a few gaps.

In the original pattern, the background isn't pieced, it's just a rectangle cut from a single piece of fabric. But I chose to piece my backgrounds using a variety of organic, curved shapes, so I'll have to make these extra squares the same way.

I planned the placement of colour in this quilt to create a sort of ombre effect, so it will look like a sunrise, and used grey as an accent to look like wisps of cloud. Each of the original background blocks was pieced using paper templates, but for the smaller square background pieces, I wanted to try cutting free hand.

Referencing the colour placement in my diagram, I cut out some strips of fabric 8 ½" wide. I made them a full inch wider than the desired finished size to account for any warping that might happen during piecing.

• With the right side of the fabric facing up, I overlapped the edges of the two pieces I wanted sewn together, and cut a gentle curved line through both.

• I then sewed the two pieces together, right sides together, along the curved edge.

• I clipped the seam allowance around the curves to make it more flexible, then pressed it.

This process was repeated until I had made my blocks large enough.

This method worked really well for my three dark squares! But because of the composition I wanted for my yellow block, it ended up a little too small. I'm also not very happy with the shape of the grey piece, so I plan to remake that block.

I still have a lot of curved piecing ahead of me. I'm planning to use it to create the outer border for my quilt, so I might incorporate my first attempt at the yellow block into the border somehow.

There's an interesting effect happening in my quilt top where the curved background piecing doesn't flow seamlessly from one block to the next. If you look back at my colour diagram you'll see lots of examples of what I mean. I'm expecting this to give the quilt a sort of glitchy, pixelated quality, which I want to recreate this effect in the border too. I'm planning to piece together curved blocks ranging from about 8" square to 8"×15", square them off, and use them to piece together the border.

Regardless of how I end up doing it, I need to have my borders pieced and ready before the weekend of 08 May. That's the weekend I'll be meeting with my Mother to work on the final instructions for this project!

If you're interested in the Wetlands quilt, the pattern is available for free on the MQG website! Don't let all my weird piecing fool you, this pattern is super beginner friendly, and a great way to try raw edge fusible applique!

For my other BoM project, I have now completed the piecing for the April block, Angular No.2, and made a lot of progress quilting the January block, Segmented Circles.

In my Project Update last week, I was working on colour studies for Angular No.2. After a lot of thought, and a conversation with my Mother, I decided to use blue as the dominant colour.

I chose blue mostly for the purpose of creating balance in my quilt. Prior to making this block, I had one green block, and two blocks that used both blue and green, so it seemed logical to eventually make a blue block with no green. Since I don't know what any of the upcoming block patterns look like, I thought I would make the blue block now while I had a pattern that called for fewer colours.

Another thing that pushed me to use blue was the concern that making Angular No.2 in green would result in a block that looked very similar to Segmented Circles. Now that I've finished piecing Angular No.2, I realise this wouldn't have been a problem because of my colour placement. Unlike the original pattern, I used two different tones in the background which broke up the space and completely changed the effect of the block!

Seeing the new block together with the other three blocks, it occurs to me that my quilt is very blue. It bothers me a little seeing how much Segmented Circles differs from the other blocks, especially since I really love the way the colours work in it. But as long as I remember to include more green in the next few blocks, I shouldn't have any problem establishing a better colour balance.

Speaking of Segmented Circles, I've made a lot of progress on the quilting of this block! Back in my 01 April Update, I started quilting the block using the matchstick quilting suggested in the pattern instructions. After that, I put it away for a few weeks and didn't get back to it until recently.

In the past week, I've managed to finish all the machine quilting on this block. For the most part, I have been following my original plan: horizontal quilting in the quarter with the floral segment and vertical quilting everywhere else, but I did add a small bit of horizontal quilting in the bottom right corner for a little more visual interest.

Just as before, I used painters tape to mark my quilting lines. I used one of my quilting rulers to help me place the tape, ensuring it was running properly parallel to the lines created by the piecing. Once I had quilted a line on each side of the tape, I would remove it, and reuse it to mark another line 1" to 1 ½" away from the first one.

To quilt the spaces in between, I used the quilted lines as a guide for the edge of my machine foot. I lined up the quilting with different parts of the foot each time to create variety in the spacing of my lines.

I really love the texture and stiffness the matchstick quilting has given this block, it's a technique I'm excited to try on some of my other quilts too!

I also really love the extra detail and texture of the hand quilting, but I do need to work on regulating my stitch length. This is my first attempt at hand quilting, so some of my stitches are a little longer or shorter than others, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it with more practice. I also find that having the machine quilting right there beside it has been really helpful. It acts as a guide to show about how long I should make my stitches.

Last night, I managed to finish all the hand quilted sections that use the white thread, and I finished the beige a while ago. Now all that's left is the brown quilting in the background! I'm so close to completing this block and I'm super excited to check out the design suggestions for the other three!

If you're interested in making this quilt for yourself, the instructions are available on the National Quilt Museum website. So far, in order of release, I've made Segmented Circles by Cassandra Beaver, Beach Dreams by Becky Glasby, Fireworks by Christina Cameli, and Angular No.2 by Audrey Esarey. I've included links to the websites and blogs run by each of these designers if you'd like to see more of their work!

Original Designs

Since I spent so much time engrossed in my BoM projects, I didn't do a lot of work on Changing Pace. Even so, I did manage to finish the row I started last week!

As I mentioned in the previous update, this is the last row for the quilt centre. Once it's been sewn on, I'll be able to start work on the four outermost rows!

Even though I didn't make a lot of progress on Changing Pace this week, I'm really happy to have completed this row. With the Wetlands BoM coming to an end soon, I expect that will take up a lot of my time in the coming weeks. So if Changing Pace disappears from my Project Updates, don't worry, I haven't forgotten it, I'll just be making slower progress in the background!

Mending

You may remember from last week that I was patching up a pair of navy work pants. These pants had some tears, shredding fabric, and other wear which I have now finished repairing.

To complete the patches on the pant legs, I top stitched across the torn bits, sewing them to the patch on the inside of the leg. This should prevent any further fraying and stabilize the weak parts of the fabric.

The other area I needed to fix was the crotch seam. There were a few places where the thread had broken along the seam, but the biggest problem was that some of the fabric along the seam line had torn and was fraying.

I reinforced this with a patch, this time on the outside of the fabric, and also top stitched over that fraying part to stabilize it. I then sewed the seams back in place, and finished the edges with some serging.

The patch fabric is a little darker than the original pants, but it's so small that it probably won't be noticed. Overall, I'm happy with the repairs to these work pants and they've been returned to their owner!

That's it for this week! Friends, thank you all for joining me for another Progress Update. I'm so happy with all the work I've done on my various projects and excited to see what I get up to next!

I share photos of my progress on social media between updates, follow me on Instagram @vafibrearts or join my Facebook group to check those out!

I would also love to see what all of you have been up to! Feel free to share photos and stories in the comments below, or message me directly through my contact page or social media!

Until next time Friends, Keep Creating!

VA