Never Say Never

I said I wouldn't do another block of the month next year because I'm still tired from the last one, Stargazer, which did turn out beautiful but was so exhausting.

So what did I do? I've thus far joined 3 block-of-the-months next year for a total of 4 quilts. I should have known I wouldn't be able to resist when they come calling!

The first one I signed up for is Angela Walters's Build-A-Quilt. I fell in love with 2 colorways and 2 of the layouts ... which means I'm making 2 quilts! The fabric will be mailed to me every month so I won't have a lot to work with at a time, which helps keep stress down.

The Stargazer quilt I did this year was run by Rebecca Bryan, who does these beautiful and intricate designs. But it was challenging and a lot of work, so I decided not to do another one next year. Of course, as soon as Rebecca showed off her design, Solstice, for next year, I caved. It is so beautiful and unique looking, and I really need a purple and orange quilt in my life.

And finally, I also signed up for a block of the month from Freshly Pieced called Paper Chain. I plan to audition my own fabric for this one.

And I already got started on Angela's build-a-quilt, since that kicked off a few weeks ago. The first month's blocks came together nice and easy:

I'm so excited about these block of the months! I hope I will find ways to manage the journey and not burn out too quickly.

Bridges

Bridges is a pattern by Anne Sullivan that appeared in Modern Monthly of the Modern Quilt Guild 2 years ago. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to make it, even though at the time my curve piecing skills were non-existent. Now that I'm a little better at it, I can finally take a crack at this!

I used the fabric collection Diving Board by Alison Glass, which I thought was very fitting given the theme. The pattern is for a wallhanging size, so I expanded it to be a throw sized quilt.

When picking quilting designs, the first thing I look at is what the theme of the quilt is. In this case, the inspiration is clearly suspension bridges, so the quilting followed that.

The part above the arches is the sky, so I quilted swirls and added an extra row of bridges with the quilting. I like to do these types of ghost blocks a lot, because they add visual interest and fill up space, so I don't have to do as much filler quilting.

The printed fabric is quite busy so I just did straight lines and some dot-to-dot quilting in the bridges. The straight lines further emphasize the suspension bridge theme.

The portion below the arches represents water, so I got to practice a design that I really like but still struggle with, which is wavy lines. The main challenge is working this design so that I'm never quilting from right to left for too long a distance. Otherwise my stitch quality deteriorates and eventually the thread shreds.

I could have filled up that whole region with wavy lines, but I decided it would be boring, so I added some elements for more visual interest. And why not a feather? It can represent an underwater plant of some sort. And at the last minute, I decided to throw in a treasure chest. I've never quilted something quite so literal before, but it was fun and adds some whimsy.

To be honest, I didn't like this quilt top a whole lot when I was finished with it, so I took some liberties with the quilting and was more experimental, but the quilting totally saved it for me, and I sort of love it now!

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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.

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.

Minikins: Turnpike Convertible Wallet

The Turnpike Convertible Wallet is my 4th wallet of the year, and one I can close out my "year of wallets" with. When the year began, I wanted to make a few wallets and I had 4 patterns in my collection. Now I'm done with all 4!

This wallet is from Sew Sweetness's Minikins Season Two collection. I used a black and gold fabric that was probably a Harry Potter print, and the cool thing about this wallet is that there's a removable shoulder strap that is fastened on by snaps. I didn't think I would like or use the strap, but it's actually quite adorable when being carried as a mini purse! The inside of it features a cell phone pocket, card slots as well as a zippered pocket.

Now that I'm finally done with my wallets, I can say that my favorite of the lot is actually #3, the Charm School Wallet. In daily use, it is the most practical and easy to use, and it was also the most enjoyable to make. (This one probably ranks at second place, though.)