August wrap up, and beach inspiration before returning to the City

It is time for my Fresh Sewing Day August wrap up post. I have been mostly on vacation at my cottage this month and it has been great. However, not really that much sewing has happened, I focused on my two swap quilts and some blocks. I did spend some time at the beach and a lot of time making jam from my crazy bumper plum crop and generally gardening and lazing about.

I am linking to Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts, head on over there to enjoy everyone's August wrap up.

My Love of Solids [a modern swap] wall quilt was inspired, in part, by the beach (the wall quilt is the first one in the mosaic above). I promised to share my beach inspiration mosaic, with photos taken from the beach down the road from my cottage.



As hard as it is to leave, tomorrow my dog and I start the two day, 900 kilometre, car journey from this island in the Salish Sea (Pacific Ocean) back to my home on the prairies in Alberta. My kids and husband have gone ahead, the youngest has had a week of school already. It is Labour Day in Canada on Monday so I have a holiday Monday to unpack and maybe sew a little before I go back to work.

Enjoy your weekend!

Best,

Leanne

Solids Wall Quilt - Ta Da!

I have finished the wall quilt I am making for my secret partner in the Love of Solids [a modern swap]. It is 29.75" x 21.25". The fabric is an assortment of Kona solids, some are the organic solids, some are the regular. There are two different Essex linen or linen/cottons as well.



This quilt had several inspirations. I hope you might be reminded of the beach - logs, water, shells, sand, plant life, and also the movement at the beach. I am working on my beach inspiration photo mosaic and will post that for you tomorrow. There are other inspirations that I will share once the secret swap is over. This spiral pattern was made using the Parfait Cafe tutorial here.



The pixelated squares, or sun-shattered views, or whatever you might see, are made of squares that finish at 1". The boards on the deck are 5"wide to give you a bit of scale.



I quilted it heavily. It has not been washed, and still you get a lot of quilty puffing. You might have a glimpse of sunbaked, ocean tossed distressed wood, sand, shells, and water.



Here is the back, which is a piece of Essex Linen or maybe their linen/cotton blend, I cannot remember. I used thread from 3 different spools of hand-dyed thread from Valdani Inc. - backyard honeycomb, subtle elegance and silver foam. This thread is a dream to work with and is made from a beautiful highly mercerized long staple cotton.



The quilting is by machine, echoing the patterns, somewhat randomly and not perfectly, much like the distressing nature causes.



The binding was interesting. I wanted the front to finish without any edges but I wanted the quilting to show on the back. I considered this tutorial by Lisa Call, combined with this tutorial by Kerry at Verykerryberry, to come up with this. The part you see on the back is about 3/4". If anyone wants a tutorial for what I did exactly, let me know. It hangs nicely with pins, I have to add some kind of hanger to the back, in case my partner is partial to using a dowel or a wire for hanging.



I just love it - it is going to be very hard to send it away, but I have plans for another one or maybe several more, similar but different, for me. Thanks to my friend Marianne at The Quilting Edge, for encouraging me on this project, I think I have managed to really stretch and I am very happy with where it has taken me.

Soon I am heading back to the City, fall is in the air, time to get back.

I am adding a link to {Sew} Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations as, finally, I have a modern finish to show off. There are lovely projects linked there, I hope you have time to visit them.



Best,

Leanne

Still playing with solids

I am this far with my piece for the Love of Solids [a modern swap]. (For those of you who are new to this project, here is the tutorial link by the Parfait Cafe for the swirls.)  I have been having a lot of fun but also this piece has been a challenge. I spent that last day deciding proportions.

It was longer at the top and bottom, and when I hung it up I knew it was not right. When I stopped thinking about it and just let my subconscious feel it, it was too long. I just knew that.

Sheesh, it's a long time since math class, but there I was dusting off my geometry and considering the golden ratio. (A helpful calculator is here.) Not that I have achieved that ratio exactly, but now it is closer   for the proportions that seemed off. And now it feels right.

The cool thing is that first I just pinned it where it "felt" right. Before I got out the math. Well that is almost exactly where it ended up. Seems good to listen to yourself as you work.

Now I am going to figure out the quilting, as I said earlier, I want to "distress" it, like sunbaked wood.

Enjoy your evening, it is beautiful here.

Best,

Leanne

Yikes, it's Wednesday again, any WIP here?

No, I did not make this whole quilt top this week!

This is a photo mosaic made of the one block I did manage. I think I may have to make the quilt, it is pretty nice. Although I think I will make the stars in a bunch of different bright colours.



Here is the one block I did finish. It is a modified Tippecanoe.

I made Tippecanoes for the Mystery QAL (Click here for my blocks). I asked Sheila, mystery mastermind, for ideas of how to avoid the blobs of seams at the points should I want to make a bunch of blocks and join them together. The very next day, she sent me this design with a handy paper pieced pattern attached.

I think I need a whole quilt, I am trying to decide on the block size before I make too many more, this is a 6" block and that is a lot of blocks for a whole quilt. I make make it larger, say 10".



I made this yesterday, it is the next piece, I think, in my wall quilt or maybe table topper for the Love of Solids [a modern swap]. It took me longer than I expected to put these together in a manner that I liked.



I know I showed you this picture already but I could not resist doing it again. [Here is the link to the tutorial by the Parfait Cafe again, you can read more about this piece in my previous blog post too.] I am going to combine it with the linear piece and maybe add something more to finish off. Then I am going to quilt it heavily, I are going for a sunbaked looked, the quilting will "distress" it a bit I am hoping.

In terms of other progress, I am still on island time, enjoying the days and moving slowly. And I am almost finished making plum jam, soon onto blackberry.

I am linking to WIP Wednesday, I missed last week. The best progress is always posted there, go and have a look.

Best,

Leanne

Playing with solids

This is going to be a piece, I think, of a wall quilt for my partner in the Love of Solids [a modern swap]. I have wanted to make this swirly hexagon block since I saw it done by The Parfait Cafe (go here, her quilt is wonderful). She also provided a handy tutorial to make the block here, which I used.

So my idea for the finished item was different to start, but a creative friend challenged me to make sure I added a part of me to the whole project. So I am doing that and I am far more excited and also nervous about it. I hope my partner will like it in the end, there is a fair bit more to go, this part is only 6.5" wide by 22" long so far.



These are the start of my smaller project for the same swap. I have some quilting ideas to try out on them. I am having fun with this grown up palette which feels very modern in a totally retro way to me.

Tonight I hope to try another interesting block that another friend just whipped up for me. Internet friends are the best!

Best,

Leanne