First Finish of 2021

 What a great way to end January, with my first finished project of the year.  One UFO is a UFO no longer.  I've called it "Skeewiff Learning with Style (Westalee Continuum)".

This is far from a perfect quilt and I've talked earlier of the challenges this quilt represented with my old sewing machine.  It was the catalyst that made me invest in a new sewing machine.  Never fear though - my old faithful machine still sits beside me too.  Maybe it is just me, but I believe as a quilter, you have a special trusting relationship with your sewing machine.  This was my first time working with free motion quilting using quilt rulers.  I look forward to the opportunity to do more.

Second guessing a mystery

Do you ever second guess the work you do on a quilt - to the point where you are willing to take a few steps backwards and rip out the work completed thus far to fix it?

I suspect if you've worked on several quilt projects, you have encountered this challenge.

I'm starting on the final step of assembling the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt pattern - "Grassy Creek".  The challenge with a mystery is even if you follow the directions given, you may want to change some things when you see them finally coming together.  In my case, I have a sort-of scrappy quilt.  I'm using multiple fabrics for each colour selection, but not a truly scrappy quilt.

Case in point - here is the assembled first block:

The dark teal-green fabrics are in the same colour family, and I wasn't really happy with the result.  I took a second block, used more of the teal-green fabric and laid it down on those four corners and took another picture:

Suddenly, the star popped for me, and as much as I didn't want to rip two assembled blocks apart, I knew it was better now than never.

I think that would be two pieces of advice that I have received that I would share with you:

1.  Assemble a corner of your quilt top when doing a mystery, or hang your blocks on a design wall, so you can see if anything is going to distract you and eventually bother you.  If you squint your eyes and can't see it - leave it.  If you squint your eyes and it still bothers you, fix it now.

2.  Never underestimate the power of a photo to give you some perspective.

Have you ever had to rework a quilt?  What tips would you share?

"Grassy Creek" - Getting Grassier!

 As you may recall, I challenged myself with the Bonnie Hunter mystery "Grassy Creek" to alter the colours.  It is not that I disliked Bonnie's picks - in fact, I loved them - but I was using 2020 as the year I stretched my boundaries with colour design.

As I started seeing the final pieces of the mystery coming together, I grew more and more unsure of my choices.  I decide to put a corner of the quilt together, just to see how badly I had messed things up.  I was already starting to plan on downsizing this from the full size to a lap quilt.  Keep putting that corner together, I would tell myself.  Maybe I would just donate it and hope no one noticed I "forgot" to put my name on it.  Don't give up yet, just a little further and then you can decide, I would hear between my ears.

I have not even finished putting it together, but was far enough along that I started to see what was coming as I laid these partially assembled pieces on the floor.  Perspective is EVERYTHING.  I have not even finished assembling this corner, and my feelings about this quilt have already changed.  It is not what I expected, nor what I envisioned with this project, but the result is shaping up to be something wonderful.

What do you think?

"Grassy Creek" - Bonnie Hunter Mystery Coming Together

Friday was the day Bonnie revealed to her fans, this year's completed mystery quilt - Grassy Creek.

Today was the day I revealed that I had finished the 5th of 7 clues - progress!  Bonnie's quilts are challenging and complex, but she provides detailed instructions and with patience and persistence, it is possible to replicate her design.

Having completed part five, I started with one of the grey string piece blocks of part six and moved to part seven to try assembling the main blocks.  Have you ever struggled with colours?  I'm trying a technique a friend once shared with me - use your phone/camera and take a black and white picture - you will clearly see the light to medium to dark tones of your fabric.  Here is an example of taking scraps of my fabric, laying them out in the order I could possibly piece them, then taking their picture.

 

As of writing this, I have two blocks assembled, and I'm so proud of myself.  This is the first time I altered Bonnie's colour selections, and this was to challenge myself with the creative use of colour.  I think when this quilt is complete, it will definitely have some fantastic patterns emerging.

My thanks to Ms. Hunter for her time and energy in creating these projects.  This is my third Bonnie Hunter Mystery and I think they are amazing!

Elm Street Quilts - UFO Challenge - January 2021

One of my goals this year is to get serious about finishing some of my many UFO's.  To help motivate me and hopefully keep me accountable, I have joined up with Elm Street Quilts and their monthly UFO challenge.

How does it work, you might ask?

You pick a UFO you commit to completing, and at the start of the month when the site is opened up, you submit a link to where you have posted your UFO.  At the end of the month, you return and post your wonderful and hopefully completed result.  While there are prizes as an incentive to participate, I'm mostly in it for the combination of bragging rights and getting quilts done!

If you want to learn more for yourself, why not check out the blog at:  Elm Street Quilts - One Monthly Goal

January's UFO for me is my Westalee Ruler Class Quilt project - Continuum (or as mine will be called "Skeewiff Learning with Style"!

How are you approaching completing UFO's this year?  You'll see an updated UFO list for 2021!  We'll need to revisit it at the end of the year to see the progress that will be made.  I guess I better get at it!

On the cusp of a New Year

 There is a saying I've heard many times that has taken on unique meaning this year:  HINDSIGHT IS 2020!

As I look back, this year I definitely had a turning point in my quilting journey.  I lost some of the zest for my projects and it seemed I could never finish a project.   In fact, for 2020 I finished nothing but managed to start 3 new quilt projects and umpteen (that's a technical number I often refer to whenever I've lost count) masks.  My beloved sewing machine had a motor burn out that controlled zig-zag stitching and it froze off centre, so machine quilting became more of a challenge.

But I meet once a month with a lovely group of women who moved to Skype with global pandemic.  They also increased the times to meet from once a month, to almost daily.  These ladies have been such a blessing in this pandemic.  We don't always talk, but we always support each other in our quilting journey and they certainly served to inspire me often. 

One of the ladies found a quilt in a bag opportunity for us all.  It was a class on using machine quilting rulers that would result in a finished quilt and a whole lot of learning.  I've only ever done stitch in the ditch type quilting and it was high time I expanded my repertoire. I got talked into joining in and adding a fourth quilt to my start list (in all fairness, my arm did not take much twisting).   For several weeks, we would watch the video tutorials on my laptop over the Skype connection.  We all bought the kit individually and each of us had the videos, but it made sense to watch together so we could stop and start it as needed to discuss key points.  I learned a lot, despite the frustration with my machine and my skeewiff needle position (another technical term that most quilters will understand).

The highlight of 2020 for quilting would come in two distinct events. One was the completion of a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt top.  I have yet to sandwich and quilt it, but I completed the assembly of the "Frolic" quilt top.  I was really proud of myself for getting this far and having this beautiful quilt completed in 2021 is definitely a goal. 

The second was my "new to me" sewing machine.  I got a Husqvarna Viking Epic 980Q.  I call it my "Ferrari" as it is definitely a high-end machine that I didn't have on my radar to consider purchasing, but when an opportunity came to get a one-year-old used machine at the store that sold me my previous machine (and it had been purchased and maintained by this shop too), I leapt at the chance (with my husband actually being the one to insist that I deserved it).

So here's to 2021, and continuing the quilting journey as I build my skills and complete projects (I'll be updating the UFO page tomorrow!!).  To everyone, I wish you all the best for a new year and here's hoping 2021 brings more quilting adventures for us all!

Starting "Grassy Creek"

 It is that time of year again:  Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt.  This year's theme is "Grassy Creek".  Each year, Bonnie generously creates a unique quilt pattern for which she releases weekly clues starting on "Black Friday".

This year, I challenged myself to not use her colours.  Of course, she puts out some of my favourite colours in her recommendations, so don't be too surprised if mine are not too far away from hers.  I started with a photo of my father and used a free application online to pick out colours.

This version of the colours is slightly different than Bonnie's but enough that it is going to make it a challenge.  

I took this page and the colours to a local quilt shop and went to town with picking out fabrics.  I ended up pulling the following fabrics 

I look forward to the challenge of a Bonnie Hunter mystery.  If you are curious about joining in, check out her website at:  Quiltville Blog - Grassy Creek Mystery