August 10, 2021

Another sewing day with Stacia and Deloise. For the very first time I was able to keep up to them thanks largely to the fact that they each had long telephone calls in the morning.

I enjoyed making the log cabin blocks; I had strips already cut in my scraps so all I had to do was find pieces that were long enough and then trim the blocks down after each round. Deloise has given me a new (to me) tool that has my seams straighter and the right size. For every project I’ve used it on it has saved me tons of time.

I wanted to try a couple of new things for the quilting. The log cabin blocks are quilted with a clamshell pattern on the diagonal. This was a pattern that came with my quilting rulers; I used the rulers to mark my lines but I used my walking foot for the quilting. I need more practise but I’ll definitely use this idea again but I’ll work on clamshells on the straight lines next time.

I also wanted to try feathers in the larger border; I had a stencil and I used it to mark the quilting lines. But when I got to the machine I wasn’t able to tell where to go from one feather to another so I stopped and ripped it all out. Then I tried to freehand draw some feathers but what I ended up with are more like leaves but that goes okay with the fabric I was using. I will try this again but do some practising on how to draw those feathers.

As near as I could determine this one hasn’t been a UFO for an extremely long time based on some of my other projects. It was a quilt-along from the National Quilters Circle and the first clue was released in October of 2018. The first photos I have of my work were from March of 2019. I was stalled on the project for quite awhile because I had some mismatched points in the centre and it took awhile to talk myself into taking it apart and fixing it. The top was finished by May of 2020 mainly because it appeared on my 2020 UFO list. When it appeared again on this year’s list I was motivated to get it done.

I used only straight lines for the quilting but I tried to be a bit creative in the lines I stitched while keeping some consistency. I’m pleased with the results and I’m feeling more confident not using any free motion for my quilts. I saw a video for using a stencil to quilt feathers with a walking foot. I tried it for the border but changed my mind; by the time I was ready to do the border I just wanted it done and feathers were going to be too time-consuming.

That did, however, give me the idea of using my quilting rulers to form a pattern. I used chalk to mark the pattern and it was relatively easy to use my walking foot for the quilting. Although I need to measure things out better it certainly worked; best part of the ruler work was that it hardly shows so my pattern placement hardly shows. I’ll be exploring this technique more often.

Although the purple backing isn’t really a good match for the purple on the front it is a nice fabric with lavender stalks in the pattern.

UPDATE: This quilt went to Kathryn

Friday, July 16, 2021

I was sewing today with Stacia and Deloise; we worked on our July postcard from the Temecula Quilt Company. As usual mine was very scrappy. The half-square triangles were already finished (leaders and enders) so all I had to do was arrange them in rows.

In my mind our first check in was going to be at nine but that was nine Saskatoon time. I was barely out of the shower when Deloise called to find out where I was. By the time we did our second check in both Stacia and Deloise were pretty much finished their projects while I was still working on the centre of mine. We discussed what we would work on when we finished the miniature; I volunteered that I would get back to my quilting when I finished.

Truth be told I barely finished my project before our last check in of the day. And there was no moving on to another project for me. I suspect Stacia finished catching up on the mystery we are doing and Deloise probably finished the quilt top she’s been working on.

This was a project that I did with my Thursday sewing group, starting in March of 2020. We each had different panels to work with but I knew the quilt shop had a Paris panel so I decided that would be what I’d use for my project. As it turned out I needed three panels and was very lucky that they had enough of them. In hindsight I could have made the project smaller but I didn’t know then what I know now. I used straight lines for the quilting but I didn’t get as much of a 3-D effect as I was hoping for.

Because I used three panels I had a few scraps left so I used them to piece the backing. This is as close as I’ll ever come to a reversible quilt and you might be fooled if not for the two Eiffel Towers.

This now hangs on the wall in the spare bedroom. The door is usually shut to that room but on the few times it is open I’ll feel like I’m back in Paris.

Here is the view of the Eiffel Tower from the apartment we stayed in while we were in Paris. A bit more industrial-looking than my interpretation.