Friday, April 24, 2020

Scrappy Progress


I've been working on these paper-pieced string blocks for awhile now, and every now and then I like to pull them out, arrange them and sew a few larger blocks together. This will eventually be a quilt for my friend, but it's only about 1/2 done at this point, so I've got a ways to go still.

These are pieced completely serendipitously, just using whatever scraps I have at the moment. So there's no planning, no color placement, nothing. I just grab a piece of fabric and sew it on and repeat. Despite that chaos, it's still pretty, isn't it? I ran out of the gray linen strips that run through the middle of each block, so I've just switched to using whatever gray fabric I have, and even that variation adds a nice touch.

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Corona Sewing


Hard to believe I've been in isolation for Six Weeks now! No big changes since the last time I posted, except I have been doing a bit more sewing. Two people reached out to hire me for commissions, which I haven't done any of in awhile, so that's kind of exciting and also motivating.

Unfortunately, fabric shopping is a little difficult right now, since my go-to wholesaler is closed, and lots of my indie sellers are also dealing with closures or very limited supply. Fortunately, my customers are an understanding bunch, and have assured me that whatever I come up with will be fine, so it's pretty much carte blanche for me, and between my own fabric stash and whatever I can scrounge up, all will be well.


I finished up the top to the 2016 Craftsy Block of the Month quilt. The final big step was a sawtooth piano key border, which was tedious. All the individual "keys" needed to have triangles sewn unto the corners and that took awhile. I love how it looks though! And then finally, two more borders sewn on. This is a big quilt (queen size) and very traditional looking with the reproduction fabrics and layout.

One thing I'm very proud of is that I kept things pretty accurate throughout the sewing process with this one. Medallion quilts can be tricky that way since they're constructed from the middle and then out with each new border. If you're off even a little, you can screw the whole thing up. And of course, I've done that many a time. This one stayed pretty even though - I think I fudged about 1/2 inch on the final border, which is nothing in the grand scheme of things. So yay me!