Spliced

Spliced is sort of my "return" to longarm quilting, because prior to working on Spliced, I had not touched my longarm for almost 3 months. Between vacations, lifestyle changes, lots of road trips, I just haven't felt like quilting. I've been piecing a lot, but not quilting.

But I'm back in the longarm room now, and I hope not to take that long of a hiatus again. This quilt top's pattern is called Whiskers by Modern Quilt Studio. I used a kit because I find the colors to be perfection, and I think the usage of the yarn-dyed striped fabric is just brilliant. I named it Spliced because that was what I was doing to add in those yarn-dyed strips ... splicing them in!

I found the piecing of this quilt rather challenging, because although the yarn-dyed striped fabric is gorgeous, it is hard to work with. I knew I'd have trouble getting the pieces to be the right size at the end as it sort of requires perfect piecing, so I cut the pieces bigger to begin with and used a scant scant quarter-inch seam, and trimmed down the excess at the end. It worked out well.

For the quilting design, I took one of my favorite approaches which is creating a foreground / background effect. I wanted to extend all the "whiskers" so they form a woven pattern. This of course requires some extra marking, but it's always worth it. The negative space in between are filled with swirls and pebbles.

I was rather afraid that after nearly 3 months away from the machine, I would forget how to quilt. But as it turns out, it's just like riding a bike! As soon as I got going, it's like I never stopped. Given how many of my quilts have a neutral background, it's always exciting to quilt with a bright teal thread. And I really, really like the striped binding too.

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Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation, Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Cooking Up Quilts, Powered by Quilting, and Meadow Mist Designs.

Meanwhile in Yarnville

The very very small subtitle of my blog is "A blog about quilting, knitting, and other creative pursuits". When I started this blog, I had started dabbling in sewing and quilting but working with yarn was still a major part of my life. Over the last few years, it clearly fell off the radar completely, and the last post I made about knitting was January 2018, almost 2 years ago!

And it's because I really haven't worked very much with yarn over the past 2 years. But after visiting Stitches Midwest 2 months ago, I decided I wanted to knit and crochet again. Although I forgot some bits, the muscle memories came back quickly. Having done millions of stitches in the past (probably) surely counted for something.

So it's time to make a post, my one yarn-related post of the year. (Otherwise I really will have to change my subtitle.) These are some of the projects I've completed in the past few months. They're all accessories because that's what I enjoy making. And considering that winter is just around the corner, I'm sure they'll come in very handy!

A Quilty Road Trip

I had been planning this road trip for a very long time. In June of this year, I decided that I had to get over my fear of my longarm machine (yes, I fear it a lot!) and take the APQS maintenance class that was happening next week. I wanted to learn how to keep it running happily, fix simple issues, and time the machine if I ever needed to.

The June class was full when I inquired, but I managed to get a spot in the October class. Looking at the map, I realized that the APQS showroom was also just 2 hours away from Missouri Star Quilt Company and 3 hours away from Quilting Is My Therapy. I'd always wanted to visit those shops, so my quilty road trip plan quickly came together.

I arrived at the APQS showroom in Des Moines, Iowa full of apprehension. I'm not particularly mechanical, and I wondered if I would be able to absorb all this information. As it turns out, the class was limited to 6 students, which was a good thing.

Out of all of the classes I've taken in recent memory, this was by far the most educational. I walked in knowing nothing and walked out with my head about to explode. It was so much information. I can't say I absorbed everything, but ... I did time a machine! I won't look forward to having to do it, but I could now if I needed to. That's worth the price of this class alone, but I also learned lots of other things, so I would say this was an excellent class.

After class was over, I drove over to Hamilton, Missouri, to begin the shopping leg of my trip. Hamilton has a real small-town America feel, and it was very nice and different from where I live. Missouri Star Quilt Company took up a good part of 2 buildings, and I really like how the shops were all divided into themes.

After Missouri Star, the last shop of my trip is Angela Walters's Quilting Is My Therapy. As everybody who reads my blog regularly knows, I am one of the biggest fangirls of Angela Walters, so visiting her shop is quite a special experience. I didn't get to see Angela because she's hosting a retreat several blocks away, but her shop is just such a beautiful little haven of color and fun!

After that, it was time to stop for the evening at my sister-in-law's place before heading back to Chicago. I ate too much and spent too much, but I had a great time and feel more confident about keeping my longarm happy. And last but not least, at the end of a shopping trip is the part where I take all the stuff out of the bags and see how much damage I did, right?

Stargazer: Final Assembly

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Such was the thought going through my head as I took out all the pieces from the 9 months worth of blocks and started to assemble them.

I followed the instructions and slowly by slowly the blocks came together. I would say that the toughest part of this is organizing all the pieces and making sure everything is in the right place. The actual sewing, though tedious, was not difficult. What really helped is that I used foundation paper piecing instead of freezer paper piecing, so while I was piecing the triangles together into blocks the paper provided extra stability.

Once the individual blocks were all done and trimmed, I sewed the individual sections in 9 parts. This was a very trying process as almost all the blocks had bias edges, and I'm afraid to even breathe near bias edges. Also, there are some seriously thick seams here. Even with the help of a mallet and a heavy hand on the iron, the seams are still thick enough that I hope I don't break a needle while I'm quilting this!

And finally, after a few months of work, this quilt top has come together. It is quite pretty, but being an all-solids quilt, it lacks a bit of soul. I hope the quilting can put the soul back in.

I'm thrilled to have finished this block of the month quilt. It was my first ever BOM where I had to wait for instructions month by month and do a little at a time, and I'm unsure if I will want to follow such a format in the future. There's a lot of mental and physical setup and teardown every month that can be avoided if I did it in one fell swoop. But I'm glad I tried it this once.