Project Update: 23.07.2024

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

As this Summer has progressed, we've been seeing fewer rainy days and more sunshine! The sunny days are a welcome change and I've done my best to enjoy them while they're here!

And while enjoying the beautiful weather, I've done my best to continue stitching away at my Summer projects! Let's take a look!

Ice Cream Soda

There is one project in particular that I've given a little more attention to than the others, and that's Ice Cream Soda! The cute bee themed prints and sunshiny yellows and golds are really quite appropriate for the Summer season and have really captivated my attention!

In my last update, I had just finished cutting pieces for the third round of one of my blocks. I was really captivated by the bold contrast of the black print beside the gold second round!

And after piecing that round, I'm thrilled with the result! The gold linework does an amazing job of unifying the contrasting print with the rest of the block!

With that block finished, I was excited to start another new set of blocks!

For this new set, I was interested in using up some of the rounds I'd cut and basted for previous blocks that I ended up changing my mind about using. This differs from the process I'd been following up until now since I had been starting with the innermost round and trying to match that, so it was almost like working backwards, an interesting challenge to take on!

For these two blocks, I started with pieces cut for a second round. Since both sets were fussy cut to feature a particular part of the print—one being framed bees and the other, grey flowers—I wanted to use a smaller print in the centre and third rounds to not take too much focus away from the larger, fussy cut sections.

These next two blocks began with third round pieces, forcing me to work completely backwards.

I fussy cut prints with matching colours for the block centres, then surrounded them with tone on tone prints that drew colours from both the first and third rounds.

The choices I made while piecing these blocks are a little different from what I may usually have chosen, but it was a lot of fun to look at the process from a different perspective!

And with those blocks finished, I was excited to work on a few more!

These two aren't quite finished yet, they're still waiting on their third rounds, but I love how they're coming together so far!

At this point, I have 32 completed blocks, so I wanted to see how they look with the background fabric I chose for this project back in December!

I chose this brassy gold solid since I thought the warm colour would match with the warmth of the golden bee fabrics, but it's also not the same bright yellow gold, so I hoped it would contrast with the prints used in my blocks.

And I think I made a great choice! This solid does everything I hoped it would!

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

Generations Quilt

A few weeks ago, I shared a roundup of all my finished Generations Quilt blocks, so I'm sure you already know that I've finished the last few I had in progress!

I still wanted to give these two blocks a chance to shine on their own though, so I thought I would share them again today!

I really love the mix of high and low contrast fabrics in the star applique! They create a sort of twinkling illusion, with some parts of the star standing out more clearly form the background and other parts receding into it!

With these finished, I've made 30 Dresden Plate and 31 Six Pointed Star blocks!

I don't know yet how my blocks will look together with Mom's, Grandma's, and Great Grandmother's, but if there's any that stick out too much, we don't have to use them in this project—I'll find a quilt for them in the future—and if needed, I'm happy to make more blocks that will work better for this collaboration!

Blocks for the Generations Quilt were self drafted based on two traditional block patterns; the Dresden Plate and the Six Pointed Star.

Shorts Pattern Drafting

Moving away from my quilt projects, I'm excited to share a little bit of progress on my shorts pattern draft!

Following instructions by Emily Hundt from her blog, In The Folds, I drafted a half waistband pattern.

Once drafted, I cut two waistband pieces from muslin and stitched them together to make a mockup, which I was able to try on to test the fit of my pattern! And while I don't have any pictures of the waistband on my body, I can say that I'm really happy with the fit of it!

The next step is to cut out the rest of the structural pieces of my shorts—we're ignoring non-structural pieces like pockets for now—and attach them to the waistband to try on an get the fit right!

Shorts pattern is self drafted.

Friends, this week's project update has been so exciting for me to put together! I've been able to show off a completed goal, a first glimpse at another project's completed look, and some much needed progress on pattern drafting!

Before writing this, I was feeling a little under accomplished, so seeing all of these projects together has really brightened my mood!

And I would love to hear about all of your current creative projects too! Please share stories and photos with me in the comments below, privately via email, or by tagging me in your posts on Instagram! I get so much inspiration from the work of fellow creators of all mediums and am always happy to hear about what you're working on!

I can't wait to see what we continue to make together!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA