Project Update: 27.05.2021

Hello Friends and Welcome to Another Project Update!

With May being the last month of the Wetlands block of the month, that has been my main focus in the weeks that have passed since my last update, but I do have a few other things I'd like to show off in this update too!

The weather the past few days hasn't been very conducive to outdoor photography, it's either been raining or windy. Between dodging raindrops and attempting to recover stolen projects from the breeze, some of my photos came out a little off. Even if the photos from this week aren't great, I'll be sure to take plenty more to share in future updates!

So Friends, without further ado, let's see what I've been up to!

Wetlands Block of the Month

I'm really happy with the progress I've been making on this BoM project! While I'm still not as far along as I had hoped to be, I've still got a few days left before the end of the month to get everything assembled!

In my last update, I had completed the piecing on about half of the necessary border blocks, mostly the yellow ones for the bottom of the quilt. At the time, I was using curved templates to cut my pieces, but as I continued piecing blocks, I started running really low on fabric.

I checked in at my local store, where I had originally bought the fabric for this project, but unfortunately only one of the three I was looking for was still in stock. I went ahead and bought an additional 0.25m (10") of the burnt copper fabric.

For the other fabrics, my only option was to piece together the scraps I had left to make them big enough to use (you can see what I mean in the photo below). Even then, the pieces I had weren't the right shape to be used with my piecing templates, so most of the blocks for the left and right side borders were pieced using the curved improv method. Check out my curved piecing research post for more about those different methods.

I also happened to notice as I was making more blocks that I actually only need three each of the 7"×14" and 7" square background blocks per side. Previously I said I needed four of the 7" squares, so learning that I didn't need to make as many saved me some more fabric!

Somehow, despite learning that, I ended up with an extra 7" square once all my blocks were pieced. Maybe I'll have to give it a home in the quilt backing, I'll save it and see what I end up doing!

With my backgrounds pieced, I moved on to adding the border applique! As with the quilt centre, I will only be adding applique to the full-sized blocks and not the small square ones. You can see what I mean in this picture from last week; the large blocks with duck applique have a small block without applique in between them.

Referencing the quilt centre, I drew up a plan for border applique placement. I wanted them to reference the applique in the quilt centre, but also wanted to add a few new species as well!

For all the new applique designs, I needed to draw new templates. I drew the shapes I wanted onto paper, you can use anything you have on hand, then when I was happy with them, I traced the outline in a black marker so the template would be visible from both sides of the page.

With all my templates ready, I started tracing my designs onto the fusible net, only to find I was running low on that as well. I managed to trace the majority of the applique designs onto the large pieces that I had, but for the few that didn't fit, I patched together some of my excess pieces to make them big enough.

This isn't a technique I researched, just a solution I came up with from experimenting:

• Take two sheets of fusible net and figure out which sides you want to connect.

• On the first, peel back ⅛" to ¼" of the paper on the grid side, on the second peel back an equal amount on the blank side.

• Overlap the two pieces along the small section you've peeled back, the exposed fusible net should stick the two pieces together.

• Repeat these steps as many times as needed to make a large enough piece to trace your template, then continue the applique process as usual!

I found this to be a very simple solution to my problem, and because the fusible net is so thin anyway, the small amount of overlap doesn't create much additional bulk. It becomes even less noticeable once the fabrics have been heat fused.

At this point, I have now cut out and fused all of my border applique designs and am working in securing the edges of each. As usual, I'm using a hand sewn buttonhole stitch.

Of the 12 applique blocks featured in my Wetlands quilt borders, I've secured the edges on 5; the cattail, frog and water lily, black willow stem, baskettail dragonfly, and Canada goose.

For the most part, the border applique was designed to take up less space than the applique in the quilt centre. My hope is that the borders will be cohesive with the centre, without distracting from it.

When I finally finish securing all the raw edges of the applique, I'll be able to assemble my borders and complete my quilt top! At the pace I'm going, I'll definitely have my quilt top finished in time to share it at my quilt guild meeting next week! I'm really looking forward to seeing the other members' finished Wetlands quilts, I'm always so interested to see how different individuals interpret the same pattern to create a variety of unique quilts!

If you're interested in making your own Wetlands quilt, you can find the pattern instructions on the MQG website!

Simply Woven

Over the past few weeks, I've been researching walking foot quilting to prepare to finish my Simply Woven quilt. This quilt has been in progress for close to a decade and was originally started by my Grandma. After all this time, I'm finally getting ready to quilt it, although I don't plan to start until my Wetlands quilt top has been properly assembled.

I'll be quilting the whole quilt in this variegated brown thread. The colour change is really subtle, so there won't be any particularly light or dark lengths of thread. I chose this colour since it blends in pretty well with both the quilt top and backing, so you won't be able to see the inevitable flaws in my quilting, I am just a beginner after all!

Here is my revised plan for quilting Simply Woven:

The colours on the diagram are used to indicate the order the patterns will be quilted; first are the edge to edge lines shown in pink, then the straight, orange lines, and the rest will be covered in organic, wavy lines, shown in blue. The wavy lines will be quilted more densely than shown in the diagram so they will evenly cover the surface of the quilt.

My post from Monday, Walking Foot Quilting Design for Simply Woven, has more detail about the design process if you'd like to check it out!

If you love the Simply Woven quilt, you can find the free instructions on the Moda blog! It was designed in 2012 by Jess Kelly of Sew crafty Jess. If you've made this pattern already, or will in the future, I'd love to see photos of your version!

Changing Pace

It's been over a month now, so I think it's past time for me to share an update on Changing Pace! If you'd like a review, check out the 22 April Project Update.

Last time, I was adding the final full width row to the quilt centre. Since then, I've been working on the outermost rows, which are each half the width of the centre rows.

I designed them to be narrower so they would resemble the borders found on more traditional style quilts, while also continuing the modern motif of the quilt centre. Even though there isn't a lot of difference between the inner and outer rows, I love that it adds some variety to the experience of this quilt!

Currently, I have completed the assembly of two of the narrow outer rows, and attached one to the quilt centre. I am still in the process of sewing the second row on, which out can see in the picture. Not depicted are the many pins holding the rest of the row in place.

With only two (and a half) rows left of this quilt, I'm really excited to see the finished quilt top! I plan to hand quilt this project, it will be my first completely hand sewn quilt, and I'm hoping to get started on that sometime this summer. I don't know yet if that will be after quilting Simply Woven, or at the same time. I suppose we will see how ambitious I feel when the time comes!

That's all the progress I have to share this week Friends, and I'm really hopeful that I'll have some finished projects to share in my next Update! If you'd like to keep up with my progress between Updates, feel free to follow me on Instagram @vafibrearts! I'm trying to get into the habit of posting every day and your support will help me to achieve that!

If you've made, or plan to make any of the projects I've linked above, I would love to see photos! You can tag me on Instagram, email me through my contact page, or share them in the comments below!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

VA