Practically a mid month check in

Wow... once again time has just flown along.  I have been plugging away with Meadowland column construction, and finally have a finished top ready for bed top measurements!

 and pondering Dash to the finish border options,

I used the fabric provided in the kit for binding to make this green pieced border.  It was always my intention to carry these triangular shapes into the border.

And I am currently angsting over whether to cut into this exquisite floral to create a final wider border.

Still a tiny bit small on the bed.

I have been playing with fabric selections for a quilt for Dylan.  Almost 16, he has actually asked for a quilt after lots of years of duvet usage.  What can a quilt mama do??

I have had this fat quarter for a number of years just waiting for the right project.

I am slowly accumulating coordinates... not quite there yet... but very close.

Now that my design floor is clear I could start playing with some layouts.

Meadowland

My Meadowland journey started when I succumbed to the thrill of the sew along...  back in March.

I fell in love with this cute hedgehog fat quarter  (thanks Susan 😉) and created a broad selection of fabrics to pull out those gorgeous colours... light and dark neutrals and some fun pops of colour.

Now, months after the sew along finished I have still been plugging away making blocks.  Originally I intended to sew 25 blocks which made a 80 inch square quilt.  Sewing block number 20 has made me realise that I'm not 100% in love with this quilt... although I'm not entirely sure why.  I still love this palette... and maybe a layout that followed the progression of colours as opposed to sprinkling all of the colours all round would have looked better.  The benefit of hindsight 😎

Anyway, I had always in the back of my mind wondered whether I would add sashing to this quilt, really just as a way of aiding the construction process.  Laying out the blocks yesterday, I contemplated how things would look laid out in columns with a wide vertical sashing... a 5 x 4 layout with sashing and borders to make up the difference in size.  Not too shabby!

One of my loves about the original quilt is the way the blocks kind of blend into each other.  You definitely lose this aspect by adding sashing (although you gain a cool secondary pattern when you add cornerstones), but the vertical only sashing still gives a similar impression, but without it being totally all over the place. Another bonus of the sashing is that it doesn't matter how you press!

A bit more of a play around with the colour dispersal... the blacks in particular needed to be evenly spaced, but also the apricots, blues, and really just about all of the fabrics needed to be spread around.

These two greens on the same row were the least of my worries... and signalled it was time to just start sewing these babies together.

The first column has been sewn already so onwards and upwards.

The importance of mini goals

After patting myself on the back for being so organised, August has been passing me by with barely a skerrit of progress.  Although I jotted down some monthly goals... I neglected to write down any mini goals... resulting in almost nothing being achieved.  Some of this I will blame on winter and rain and cold and general dreariness.  Some of it is just poor planning and minimal motivation.

So, this weekend it all changed and I wrote those goals... And you know what?  Quite a lot of them happened!

Last weekend I got partly through the next This Little Piggy block...

And it took most of the week to decide on chicken colours and get some eyes and nostrils on the cow... And decide on block backgrounds and placements.

Filling up nicely.

So the mini goal for the next block was to trace the elements.  Done!  And you know what... it was pretty easy to do the trunk... then the tree... the piggies were a bit more detailed, but in the end not really that much work.  And look, another block ready for blanket stitch.

Now we're really getting somewhere!

Oops, forgot the sun!  This is going to be positioned partly outside the block so is not attached until the sashing and borders are completed.

Also on the agenda was to cut another Meadowland block ready to stitch up during the week. 

And to start piecing the Dash to the Finish quilt into rows.  Row 1 is done.

I have started construction of Nadias half square triangle quilt and have been using this as an intermittent leader and ender project.  My goal for this month is to get this bottom left third constructed.

Just need a few more half square triangles to fill in the blanks! 

I may be sick of half square triangles by the end of this one 😂

End of month roundup

It wasn't until today, the last day of the month, that it seemed at all possible to get some of my monthly tasks finished. 

The month started with 6 tasks:

I made great progress with the Meadowland blocks... Love this floral and neutral spot!

And to top it off I got these bonus units sewn... not quite finished, but a good start for next month.

Huge news is that I finished off the last of the FMQ on Loosely Woven... so I'm all ready to start binding over the weekend.  Finishing this corner was the best feeling ever!

I wanted to get one more Dash to the Finish block done...

And almost  finished a bonus second one as a leader ender project!

And finishing two Patchwork City blocks seemed impossible on Monday, but a few seams here and there... and the addition of a sneaky stripe in this block...

... meant I got all the units finished today for block 24...

... to add to block 23...

... and June is going to be a busy month finishing the last block - 25, a little bit of sashing, borders and finishing touches and this one will be a top!

Wiggly quilting...

... and binding... this quilt is so close!

So yeah... 5 out of 6 and it felt so good to get those stickers on!

Almost All the things

I've been doing a little bit of not quite everything... but certainly lots of things.

Like Meadowland blocks...

Walking foot wiggly lines on my modern applique Buggy Barn Blooms quilt...

That was after this diy attachment of the seam guide to do my straight zigzags... good old sticky tape!

Then wiggle wiggle I went!  Discovered that your organic lines still need to be somewhat horizontal, resulting in some fix ups along the way 😤.  Also that while they may seem wiggly while you are doing them, sometimes they come out pretty straight.

 After that I developed a method which seems to have worked well for me, stitch lines that are relatively straight about 3 or 4 inches apart to use as guidelines, and work from the centre out to the edges (I did end up marking a starting line and using the seam guide to do these).  Then go back and fill in a straightish line between each of those lines, but having a lot of variety in their widths (this line I just eyeballed and didn't worry too much about)... then finally, doing wiggly lines in each irregularly spaced gap, using wiggles of different wiggliness!

I've only got a strip about 10 inches wide left to quilt on this... woohoo!!

And finally back to some good old free motion as I start the border on Loosely Woven.

With an 8in border, it is going to take some time!