Project Update: 28.11.2023

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

Last night, a cold wind blew in and brought with it a flurry of flakes!

We've had a few snowfalls already this month, but this is the first time we've gotten enough snow and cold enough weather to keep it. Meara, of course, is thrilled! She loves snow and had a lot of fun playing in it this morning while I cleared off our sidewalk. But I much prefer to stay warm inside with my quilts!

I've been working on a few different quilt projects as the weather has grown colder and am excited to share how they're progressing! Each one is in a slightly different stage of the quilt making process and are progressing at different rates, but I'm really happy to see how each one is coming together!

Let's take a look!

Hexie Harvest BoM

Though the quilt along ended several weeks ago, I'm continuing to enjoy the slow paced, hand piecing of Hexie Harvest!

After discovering an error in my row five placement a few weeks ago, I've continued to piece together my blocks and finished the fifth row by moving what should have been the rightmost block into the leftmost position. It may not be the positioning I had originally planned, but a little improvisation never hurts!

And with that row finished, I've begun to add row six! I'm only two blocks into that row so far, but once this row is finished, I'll have passed the halfway point in piecing this quilt top!

With many stitches taken and many more to make, I've loved every moment of the Hexie Harvest quilt along! I'm excited to see how this quilt turns out and plan to enjoy every stitch we have left together!

The Hexie Harvest pattern was designed by Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth and ran through most of 2023 as a block of the month style quilt along.

Indigo Way Mystery Quilt

Last week, I finished collecting fabric for yet another new quilt along, Indigo Way! Should I be starting another quilt when I have so many unfinished? Probably not. Am I excited to be doing it anyway? You bet I am!

The pattern's first piecing instructions were released last Friday and I jumped into it right away!

These instructions had us make several sets of half square triangles. In the original colours, these were high contrast navy and white units, but my corresponding colours had much less contrast. I used blue and teal for these units and I love how they turned out!

But these units aren't simply standalone half square triangles, we were tasked with making matching sets of four. I chose to interpret matching fairly loosely and make my sets a little scrappy!

In each set, I used a single, matching teal print, combined with various blues in a similar value. Some sets may have several blues that match, while others may use four different blues. I think sticking to this rule should help the sets stay unified while maintaining an overall scrappy feeling across the quilt!

Given the number of half square triangles made this week, and the size of the finished quilt, I expect that these will be worked into blocks somehow, and that the blocks in this year's pattern will be smaller than the blocks used last year in Chilhowie. But this is only the first clue, so who knows how the pattern will develop as we go along!

Indigo Way was designed by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville as her 2023-24 winter mystery quilt along. The quilt along is currently free to join and open to all, check out the Indigo Way page of her blog for more details.

Stars of the City BoM Sample

Not a lot of new progress to talk about on Stars of the City, but many new stitches in place!

I've continued to quilt the same corner of the quilt shown in my previous project update. Here it was two weeks ago ...

... and here it is now!

Several new stars have been quilted into the background, helping to fill the expanse of white with some fun new texture!

I'm still really enjoying the process of hand quilting and can't wait to get back to it, maybe as early as tonight?

The Stars of the City pattern is my own original design. It is currently running as a free, block of the month quilt along here on the Fibre Arts blog, with the next instalment ready to be released next Tuesday!

Meadow Mystery Quilt

And finally, my oldest ongoing project, Meadow Mystery!

With the machine quilting complete on the most recent row of blocks, I was excited to add the hand quilted details! I've had so much practice on Stars that this step went quickly and the blocks were soon ready to sew together!

I've stitched the blocks into a row and sewn that row to the quilt centre, so I now have a 4x5 block quilt, leaving me with only five rows left to go!

Experimenting with this new quilt as you go technique has been a lot of fun! I've really enjoyed trying different stitches and block orientations while trying to figure out which way works best for me!

My Meadow Mystery quilt is based on a design by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs. The original pattern ran as a block of the month style mystery quilt along on her blog in 2016-2017 and by my quilt guild in 2021-2022. The pattern is still free to access on the Meadow Mystery quilt page of her blog.

Friends, it has been so nice to curl up with all of these quilts on such a cold and blustery day! I'm excited to continue working on them as the days get shorter, the wind gets colder, and the snow continues to pile up!

And if you haven't frozen solid yet, I would love to hear about the projects you've been working on yourselves! Perhaps you're trying a new hobby, continuing a work in progress, or maybe even stitching along to one of the same quilts I'm making? Regardless of which it may be, please share your projects with me in the comments below, on Instagram, or reach out my email!

I hope you're able to stay safe and warm as the seasons begin to shift and that we're able to continue working on our projects together as a new month begins!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA