Project Update: 31.01.2023

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

I've had a very productive few weeks since my last update! Being sick might have put me behind, but spending all that time seeing other people's beautiful quilts progressing inspired me to get back to piecing my own projects once I was finally well enough to do so!

It has been a lot of fun catching up on these quilts! Some of them, like the BoM projects, progress pretty slowly, so I only get to work on them once in a while. Others involve a lot more piecing and detail, so they take more time. Having a mix of both gives me lots of variety and plenty of opportunity to try new things!

I'm excited to share what I've been working on! So Friends, let's take a look!

Summer Garden BoM

After some speculation as to whether Mom and I would be able to get together to work on January's Dove at the Window blocks, it turns out we didn't have time.

While she has finished her blocks without me, I haven't made much progress on mine.

I've cut all the pieces needed to complete all my Dove at the Window blocks, but they still need to be pieced together.

But while I'm behind on the January blocks, I've gotten ahead on the unreleased February blocks!

The pattern for the next block, Snowball, will be released in next week's post and I was excited to get some samples put together! Since this is one of the simplest blocks in the Summer Garden pattern, I ended up putting together most of my blocks already.

Mom and I have set aside a weekend in February to work on our blocks together, so it looks like I'll be catching up on my Dove at the Window blocks while she makes Snowball. I'm looking forward to it!

Summer Garden is an original pattern of my own design. The next block will be available here on the blog on 07 February, or you can start from the beginning by visiting the Fabric Requirements post!

The $3.31 Quilt

My optimism that I would be able to finish the Caribou block before the release of the January block did not last long.

After working on the block through the afternoon, I only managed to get my pieces cut and hadn't actually started sewing anything together.

Though it didn't get finished as fast as I had hoped, the Caribou block was a lot of fun to work on! There were some interesting details in the arrangement of the antlers and the leafy print I chose for the body created a dappled effect that almost looks like the Caribou is walking through a forest!

And the block did come with one more surprise, it's absolutely huge! I guess I didn't read all the way to the end of the pattern back when it was released in December.

Despite being the biggest quilt block I've ever made, I really enjoyed putting the Caribou together and doing so inspired me to keep going and tackle the Loon block that very same day!

The Loon is much closer in size to the first two blocks, so it went together much faster than the Caribou had.

It came with a lot of fun details, like the white piecing on the wing, and the metallic print I chose for the main body fabric added a lot of movement and even more detail! I really love how this block came together and I think it looks great with the other blocks!

Seeing them all together, I think the Caribou does stand out a bit. It's a combination of the larger size and the use of a portrait rather than a full body image. While this framing is consistent with the images on Canadian coins, I think I would like to try redesigning this block like I did with the Polar Bear.

But that's a challenge for another day, for now, I'm excited for the release of the next block, which I think will be a maple leaf, and should be available on 15 February!

The $3.31 Quilt is the current CQA members' mystery project. It was designed by John McPhail of Art East Quilting Co.

Chilhowie Mystery Quilt

I was really disappointed with myself for falling behind on the Chilhowie mystery quilt along. I'd been having so much fun working on it and was really interested in the mystery element of the project. The fast pace meant I was getting new clues frequently and constantly changing my thoughts on the final appearance of the pattern. It was so exciting!

But after I got sick, the final pattern was released and I felt a little like I'd failed somehow. I was being really hard on myself, and being sick hadn't helped.

I feel like all these negative thoughts didn't come across in my last update. As much as I want to be able to stay positive about my progress and to not focus on flaws and self-criticism, I think it's also important to remember that everyone makes mistakes and is hard on themselves sometimes.

After facing those thoughts, I felt a lot better and was prepared to jump back into Chilhowie!

Since my last update, I managed to complete clue no.5!

This clue focused on piecing together some of the previously assembled units into blocks. These had a lot of detail, and since I'm using just three colours instead of the full four, it's been really interesting to see how my blocks differ from the original pattern!

With those completed, I've started working on clue no.6!

This clue adds a border around each of the clue no.5 blocks to make them larger and more detailed. If I'd been working on this clue before the final quilt was revealed, I may have followed the pattern a little more closely. But since I do know how the final pattern looks, I made a few changes!

The pattern was supposed to have a solid square as the central unit of the border segments, but I thought the effect of this was just a little jarring, the contrast it adds is nice thought.

I opted to use a square in a square unit in that place instead. It keeps the square of contrasting colour, but makes it a little smaller and helps to blend it with the rest of the block. I can't claim this as an original idea though, I've seen many other people sharing this change in their own quilts!

After making all my square in a square units, I laid out all the pieces to get a better idea of how my finished quilt will look. I wanted to be very intentional about using colour placement to emphasize the secondary pattern in the quilt. I'm excited to see how it comes across in the finished quilt!

I was only able to piece the borders onto one of my blocks, so I still have a lot of piecing left before clue no.6 is complete. But I'm really excited with the progress I've made and am once again feeling good about the direction this quilt is taking!

Chilhowie was designed by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville for her annual mystery quilt along. She makes her quilt along patterns freely available while they're in progress, but after it has wrapped up, the pattern will be moved to her store.

The Generations Quilt Project

With my focus pointed towards getting caught up on my various quilt along projects, I ended up somewhat ignoring my Generations blocks, and I suspect that means I won't have a finished block for this month.

But this project hasn't been totally forgotten, I made some great progress on two Dresden Plate blocks!

I've had the idea of a very neutral, all beige quilt stuck in my mind for some time now. This is a bit of a change for me since I typically make quilts with bright accent colours, but I'm always interested in trying something new!

The colour placement in these blocks was inspired by my Grandma's Dresden blocks. She arranges her petals so the colours flow through each other and create a sort of ombre effect. I did this in my neutral blocks by making the colours go from an area of light to dark and back again. It's a really interesting effect!

And, of course, the all beige blocks will be finished with a beige background fabric!

The Generations quilt is an intergenerational collaborative quilt project between myself, my Mother, my Grandma, and my Great Grandma. The quilt will feature two traditional quilt blocks; the Dresden Plate and the Six Pointed Star.

Simply Woven

The final project of today's update is the one I'm most excited to be sharing! It's Simply Woven!

This quilt has been many years in the making. My Grandma chose the fabric and started piecing the blocks at a workshop sometime around 2012, then, in 2016, she gave the blocks to me to finish. And after all that time, Simply Woven is just about complete!

I finished the machine quilting earlier this month and have since buried all my thread ends, completed the hand quilting, and started the binding!

My preferred binding method is a hand finished, double fold binding, so I sewed down the front side by machine and have been working my way around the back of the binding by hand.

It's been going pretty well, but I think I did something strange with my corners. The first two were a bit of a struggle, but I just made it around the third corner last night and that one went really easily. I'm not sure what I did exactly, but I'm making progress and I think this quilt will be done by the end of this week!

I'm really excited!

Simply Woven was designed by Jessica Kelly of Sew Crafty Jess. The pattern is available for free on the Moda blog, but may need to be accessed through the Wayback Machine.

Friends, it has been just two weeks since my last update and I've managed to make unbelievable progress in that time! I'm so proud of all the work I've put into catching up on quilt alongs and can't wait to see how that progress may continue!

Since it's the last day of January, there's a lot to look forward to! Next month, the February instalment of Summer Garden will be released, the Hexie Harvest BoM will be starting, and The $3.31 Quilt BoM will be coming to an end.

If you'd like to keep up with all of that, please visit me on Instagram @v.a.fibre.arts where I post updates throughout the week! You can also share stories, photos, and questions with me there or in the comments below. I love hearing from you all!

In the meantime, I'm going to keep stitching and see what I can finish!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA