Project Update: 23.09.2021

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

The gloomy fall weather is persisting in my area. We're expecting another few days of rain and I am loving it!

Along with the rain comes the changing of the leaves, a beautiful transformation I can't wait to see more of! But the leaves aren't the only thing changing this fall, I'll be making a change to my posting schedule, which I'll explain at the end of this post.

Before we get into that though, I'm excited to share some of my progress from the past few weeks!

National Quilt Museum Block of the Month

I'm so excited to be able to say that I've completed the piecing on my July block remake!

It has taken quite some time to get this block together. Initially, I was trying to follow the One Day in Summer block instructions by Ann Brauer, but I got very attached to a preparatory sketch and decided to completely change directions.

My redesign features a block made from seven smaller chunks. Each chunk is improv pieced using a specific predetermined colour scheme based on the original sketch.

You can read more about the process of planning and redesigning my July block in my past updates: 22 July (first attempt at block), 12 August (changing directions), 26 August (block redesign), 09 September (piecing the redesign).

As for my more recent progress, I hand pieced the final chunk, just as I did with the others, and trimmed it to shape using my pattern diagram. The completion of this last chunk allowed me to begin the final step of assembly, piecing the chunks into the finished block!

As per the original pattern, I wanted to piece the major construction seams through the batting and backing. This securely hides the seam allowances, but also creates a unique secondary quilting design that is only visible from the back side of the quilt!

To piece the block, I placed the first chunk onto my batting right side up and the second chunk on top with the right side down. With the adjacent edges aligned, I sewed the two chunks together using a ¼" seam allowance.

Once sewn, I folded the chunks open so they were both right sides up, pressing them in place. I repeated these steps with each consecutive chunk until the piecing was complete!

These are the same steps explained by Ann Brauer in the original One Day in Summer instructions. Download the block pattern from the NQM website for a more detailed explanation!

With that done, my block now looks like this:

As you can see, my block is very much not square. I need to keep this extra fabric until my block is quilted to account for any shrinking that may happen. And since I'm quilting these blocks chronologically, I still need to complete my March, April, May, and June blocks before I'll continue with this one.

And speaking of quilting, I have actually made progress on one of those earlier blocks!

After putting it off for many months, I've finally begun quilting my Firework block from back in March. This pattern was designed by Christina Cameli and has been a tonne of fun to work with!

I planned my quilting motif many months ago, sharing it in a project update on 01 July.

I really love the mix of different quilting designs, but never actually thought about what colours to use. My two previous blocks each used three different colours: brown, beige, and white for the January block, and grey, beige, and white for February.

I wanted to continue this pattern with my March block, so I jumped in using beige to quilt two opposite quadrants. A third quadrant was quilted using white thread and the final quadrant in brown!

In hindsight, the brown creates much higher contrast and is way more visible on the finished block than the other two colours. I would have preferred something with more even contrast, but I'm really proud of how the quilting turned out!

Moving forward to the hand quilting, I decided there wasn't quite enough space in the wedge for the feather motif from my original plan. I improvised a leaf design based on the lotus motif from my free motion mini quilt and some vintage quilting motifs.

It's easiest to see the hand quilted design from the back side of the quilt:

I also decided to add more variety to the block by rearranging the thread colours. As you can see in the picture, I quilted with brown thread in the white quadrant, and in the top left, began to use white in the beige quadrants. That means beige will be used to quilt in the brown quadrant when I next find myself quilting!

I'm so excited with how the quilting is going so far! I waited so long to work on this block because I was intimidated by the prospect of free motion, but it turns out I just needed to jump in and give it a try!

If you're interested in making either of these blocks for yourself, check out the NQM website for free pattern downloads! Be sure to let me know how your blocks turn out!

Summer Mini Quilts

Earlier this week, I wrapped up another of my projects: the Summer 2021 Mini Quilt Challenge!

I had a lot of fun working on the variety of projects, testing new techniques, and expanding my skills! Check out the Challenge Wrap Up post for more of my final thoughts, information on unused prompts, and for links to each of my mini quilt posts!

You may remember I was still working on one of these mini quilts in my last update. In response to the bagging out prompt, I made this quilt:

Bagging out is a folded edge method of finishing a quilt. The layers are sandwiched inside out, sewn around the edges, then flipped right way out. For more about this method, check out the Bagging Out Mini Quilt post!

This quilt was the final one made for the challenge, and while I'm sad it's coming to an end, I'll have so much more time for what is to come!

Moving Forward

As mentioned at the beginning of the post, this fall is bringing a big change to the posting schedule of my project updates!

I'm expecting the fall to be a little busier for me than the past few seasons. I want to be able to continue to give each of my posts the same amount of attention and care I've been giving them, and I'm worried the weeks with both a Monday and Thursday post will end up slightly lacking.

To preserve the quality of all of my posts, I'll be integrating all future project updates into my regular Monday posts. I will be sure to post at least one project update every month to keep you all up to date on what I'm doing, and I will continue to share photos on Instagram @vafibrearts in the between times!

Friends, I hope you are also able to slow down and take the time to appreciate the changes this fall may bring to you!

These past few weeks, I've prioritized catching up with the NQM BoM project and finishing the Mini Quilt Challenge. Looking ahead, I'm excited for the chance to continue quilting Simply Woven and to begin a new mystery quilt through my guild BoM program!

Let me know which projects you have coming up this fall in the comments below! I love seeing the work of other creators and learning the stories behind each piece!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

VA