Project Update: 29.04.2021

Hello Friends and Welcome!

I have been feeling a little under the weather recently. The last few days I've been especially dizzy and that's made both sewing and writing a big challenge for me. I've decided to take a break from posting next week to recuperate, so there will be no regular blog post on 03 May, and no Project Update on 06 May.

Luckily, I had already written most of this week's Project Update before the worst of it hit, so I'm still able to share that!

This past week, I've continued progress on several of my projects which I'm excited to share today! And I have a few things coming up that I'm really looking forward to. Read on Friends, for more details about those!

Block of the Month

If you've been following along with my social accounts, you're probably already tired of seeing pictures of the completed quilting on my Segmented Circle block. That's right Friends, I have officially completed the quilting on the first of my National Quilt Museum BoM blocks!

I really loved the new technique, matchstick quilting, and especially enjoyed integrating hand quilting! This is a new skill for me; I've never tried hand quilting before, but I love the way it turned out! Sure, I have to learn to regulate my stitches, and there were definitely a few places where they only barely went through to the back, but I'm really proud of it nonetheless.

I think all of the hand sewing I've done over the past few months of work on Changing Pace has really helped me prepare for this. And having the machine stitching right there as a reference helped me to keep my stitches more consistent. I'm looking forward to more hand quilting experiments, perhaps even integrating it into the quilting of the other NQM blocks!

I also really love the variation in direction added to the matchstick in this pattern. I'm not sure I would have thought to quilt it in different directions without the designer's suggestion, but I'm so happy with the result! I think this caused the block to turn out a little wavy, but I'm sure once it's been sewn to the rest of the quilt, it won't be noticeable.

I am so looking forward to beginning the quilt-as-you-go quilting on the rest of these blocks, next up is my slightly abstracted version of Beach Dreams!

Segmented Circles was designed by Cassandra Beaver and Beach Dreams by Becky Glasby. All past and upcoming blocks can be downloaded for free from the NQM website.

And speaking of upcoming blocks, the next block for this program will be released this weekend on Saturday! I'm super excited to see what design will be next and to make it my own! Look forward to more information about it in my next update.

I've also gotten some work done on my other BoM project, Wetlands. It's being hosted by my quilt guild and runs following the guild year, September to June. To allow members to share their finished BoM quilts at the June meeting, the final instructions for this program will be released following the May meeting next week.

I've been having a lot of fun with this quilt, both because it is such a beautiful pattern and because I've been working on it together with my Mother, and I'm sad that it's coming to an end. The happy part though, is that my Wetlands quilt top will soon be in one piece!

I've been preparing for the release of the final instructions by putting together some of the extra pieces I've chosen to add to my version of the quilt. None of what I'm making at this time is included in the original pattern, I added it to create a very specific effect in my finished quilt.

In my last update, I showed some of the extra background squares I made to complete my quilt centre, including one I wasn't very happy with.

I was able to make a replacement block by using paper templates rather than relying solely on improvised curved piecing. I'm now much happier with the final look of the block, I think the shape of the grey piece is much more delicate and flows through the background in a really beautiful way! And I think it will fit much better with the surrounding blocks than my first attempt.

I've also begun the process of piecing together my outer border. I've decided to apply the intentionally unmatched quality of the curved piecing found in the quilt centre to the outer border as well. I don't believe I did a very good job explaining this last week, so here's some pictures to help out.

These are actually adjacent blocks that will go together as shown into the quilt top. I knew that trying to make the curved piecing in the background flow seamlessly from block to block would be nearly impossible, and I embraced this fact.

I treated each block as a separate entity, but with consideration for the overall effect I wanted to create. In my sketches, I love the contrast between the gentle curves of the piecing and the straight lines that will connect the blocks to each other. I'm hoping this effect will translate just as well into the completed quilt!

But back to the border; I wanted the outer border to be 7" to reflect the size of the pieced background blocks, and have enough room for some additional applique. The blocks in the quilt centre will finish at 7"×14" and the extra background squares I mentioned earlier will be 7" square, so my border pieces will use those sizes as well.

I've started piecing together one of the longer sized blocks using improvised, freehand curved piecing. It worked out fine, but I'm definitely not as happy with it as I am with the template pieced background blocks. I feel like it's lacking some of the flowiness, and I found it hard to include smaller, wispy piecing. I wanted the grey sections to be more delicate than they ended up. I'll keep this piece to the side for now and if I have enough fabric, I'll consider remaking it later.

Moving forward, I've decided to use templates again for the piecing. Because I've drawn them myself, the templates give me a lot more control over the exact look of each piece. I made lots of templates for the piecing of the quilt centre, so I can reuse those, but I'll change up the colour placement so they aren't exact copies.

I'll need to make a few more of the 7" square templates, so far the only one I have is for the yellow block I showed earlier. I expect the end result will look better if I don't reuse only this one temple. I suppose there's always the option of using the larger templates and cutting them down to the appropriate size, but I honestly think it would take less effort to make some new templates for the squares.

It looks like I still have a lot of work ahead if I want to have all my extra pieces ready for the release of the finishing instructions.

Instructions for the Wetlands BoM quilt are available on the MQG website. Just to reiterate; the original pattern does not include curved piecing, all of the progress I've talked about in this post has been my own choice to include. If you follow the link, there are sample photos of finished quilts made as instructed.

The Future of Project Updates

As it is now the last week of April, my experimental Project Update posting schedule is coming to an end. For the past month, I've been posting updates on a weekly schedule, which has allowed me to share a lot of details about the projects I'm working on and show off each step of the process!

But I've also noticed a fair amount of redundancy in my writing, and I often find myself struggling to find new ways of saying the same thing.

I can see that each schedule has its benefits and downsides, but I think for the time being, I'll return to my previous posting schedule of every second week. If you disagree with this decision, feel free to let me know, I love sharing my progress and would be happy to reconsider my posting schedule!

Thank you all for visiting me again this week! I've loved sharing what I've been up to, even though I've been feeling sick, sharing my projects gave me something positive to focus on for a few hours. Just to remind you all again, there will not be posts next week on 03 May or 06 May to give me time to recover, but I'll be back to my normal schedule with a new post on 10 May!

Even if I can't handle sewing myself right now, I would love to see what all of you have been up to! Feel free to share photos and stories in the comments, send me an email through my contact page, or reach out on social media! I share photos between updates on Instagram @vafibrearts and in my Facebook group.

Until Next Time Friends, Stay Safe and Healthy!

VA