Conquered Curves

This Polarity quilt pattern caught my eye the minute I walked into Mad About Patchwork in the summer of 2019.  I have always shied away from curves, but with my DH's encouragement to give them a try, I purchased the pattern and material - mostly dark blues and neutrals in Kona solids.  I added only one  dark blue print to the mix.
 
I procrastinated in starting this project and then we moved, delaying the start even more.

Once my new sewing area was set up I decided it was time to give the pattern a go.   No longer allowing those darn curves  - which I had tried a few times over the years - to keep me at bay.

The pattern comes with a template which I copied and put on a firm piece of cardboard for the concave and convex pieces.  I did a few sample runs with some fabric from my stash.  I discovered after this first try,  I'd have to be careful to match the seams and followed some helpful suggestions that the designer, Stacey Lee O'Malley, from SloStudio, had written in the pattern.

Feeling more confident,  I started the cutting process -  first strips, then squares, then cutting the pieces with the template.

I always am a bit hesitant when I start cutting the required strips and find that I don't get the same number pieces that the pattern says I should get from that strip. I make it a habit to wash and dry my fabric before using and this causes a small bit of shrinkage in the fabric.  Most cottons are a 44/45" width with the selvage being part of this width.  It would be great if pattern designers took this into account, as I have run into this problem before.

The wonderful thing was,  I was able to contact Stacey, the designer, and she had some suggestions to overcome this issue.  I appreciate it when a designer is available to offer help.

 
While I was cutting the first of my pieces with the template, I saw that there was a lot of waste from each piece.  So I did some rejigging and found a way to get more pieces from the material.

I watched several You Tube videos for best way to sew concave and convex pieces together.  Many opinions are out there on which is the best method - pins, no pins, some pins.  I went with the many pins method and things went well.  I used a scant 1/4" seam allowance.

Once sewn, each square was pressed and trimmed to 10 1/2".

Once trimmed, the pieces were then placed on the design board (and design floor) 😊

Although the quilt top was finished, I had to wait for a bit before I got it quilted (pandemic and all you know).  The design I chose was Easy Orange Peel and Jen at Happy Wife Quilting did a spectacular job. 

  

I added a label and chose a binding which was one of the quilt top fabrics (navy blue with small white crosses which show intermittently around the quilt).  And voila, my curved quilt was complete.  

 

I'm really happy with the final result and so glad I rose to the challenge and conquered curved piecing.

Project Bags

Don't know what it is, but I love sewing these project bags.   When fabric catches my eye, I feel the need to make a bag out of it :) I'm calling this one Hudson Red because that's the name of the multicolor fabric.  Reminiscent of Hudson Bay's colours.  The red bottom is Kona Rich Red.  I'll be making more of these in other colors.

Hudson Red

  If I need a bigger project bag, I make adjustments to the pattern.  Sometimes I'll make a drawstring bag, instead of the zipper.  But, I generally prefer zippered ones.

Spring Drawstring

Zigzag

I quilt the exterior of most bags.

Woolly Red

Scrappy Correspondence

Sometimes I make a scrappy exterior with leftover fabric from my stash.



 All in all, a fun and useful sewing activity.

Flying Geese Quilt

Fall here in Almonte has flocks of geese flying south for the winter.  Seldom a day goes by without seeing the birds flying in V-shape formation and honking loudly as they continue their journey.  This inspired me to make a quilt based on flying geese.  I saw the Grey Goose Quilt made by Beech Tree Lane .  I loved the symmetry of the flying geese and the shades of grey and negative space.

I wanted to make a much larger size - almost 94" square and use more print fabrics.  Instead of a white background, I chose Grunge in Paper White by Moda.   Mad About Patchwork staff suggested that as an alternative to the white.  It has a bit of grey in it and worked perfectly.

 

I constructed the flying geese using the 4 at a time, no waste method.  It really did cut down on the waste and I was left with only bits from each block.  

There are lots of tutorials on the internet for the No Waste Method.  Here's one I found quite helpful.
Wing Clipper Tool  I made the blocks without using the tool.

Once all the blocks were made - over 200 of them -  I used my 'design board' to play with placement. 

When I was happy with the placement, I sewed the blocks together in columns.  Then joined the columns, alternating the geese going up in one and down in the next column.

I quilted my quilt using the  longarm machine at Happy Wife Quilting.  Jen's new machine is fantastic.  I chose the Samuri pattern after much hemming and hawing. 

  

The backing of the quilt is Wideback Spackle Newspaper Clipping from Windham.  It's a busy fabric to contrast the simplistic geese pattern.

Finally for the binding, I chose a red with black print.  I was originally going to use a black with very small polka dots, but the red makes for a nice contrast.  Happy with the final result.

Marianne Quilt

My most recent charity quilt is the Marianne pattern by Sarah Overton which was published in the latest Modern Quilt Guild magazine.  

The pattern uses pre-cut layer cake fabric to create HSTs.  They are then put together on point.  I really liked the look it created.  I was even able to use a charm pack for which I've been trying to find a purpose.  
At last I've used them and I think they added a lovely bit of color to this quilt.

Random Rectangles - Charity Quilt #10

Still on track with my goal of 1 charity quilt a month for this year. This month's pattern is called Random Rectangles.  It can be found in Ellen Luckett Baker's book "1, 2, 3 Quilt". 

The pink and blue fabrics with the odd dash of green, blend nicely in this design.  Helps to use up lots of fabric stash too.

Free motion quilting in meander design.

Quilties

Our quilters' guild supplies the local hospital with Quilties for the newborns.  I enjoy making them as it uses up my stash of fabric and allows me to practice my free motion quilting.  Most of all it gives the newborns a little something special to take home with them.

The quilties I made this month gave me a chance to try a few new pattern blocks.  

I have made a Disappearing 9 Patch quilt before, but this one was made with no particular background fabric, just assorted blocks.  Also, when there wasn't enough material for a full block I pieced from smaller cuts of fabric.  Certainly a different look.  The free motion quilting was hearts and curves with circles. 

Took the opportunity to try a Quilt As You Go quiltie.  This is a fun method which works well with long strips that are at least 1 1/2" to approximately 3" in width.  Once all the fabric was sewn, I made lines diagonally to the ones that were formed when I sewed the long strips on.

The guild sometimes provides kits of fabric that we can work with.  I picked up one that had some interesting colors -  dark blues, reds, yellows and black and white fabric - not the usual baby pastels.  It also had a print of snowmobiles with some of those colors.   Fortunately, there was enough fabric for 2 quilties.  I made On the Fence pattern with one and stitched in the ditch for quilting.

The second was Rectangle Pinwheels.  The quilting was hearts, curves and circles.

And finally, Pastel Rectangles and Squares quiltie. Lots of soft baby colors and the quilting was free motion echo shells.

Disappearing 9 Patch - Charity Quilt #9

This pattern is quick to sew up and creates a nice look.

This pattern  is designed by arranging and sewing together 9 squares to create a traditional 9 patch block.  Keep the center block of the 9 patch the same fabric,  4 blocks the background fabric and 4 corner blocks different fabric.  

Then  cut down the middle vertically and horizontally to give you 4 pieces.  

 

Then sew them together in this design and be sure to square them up.  There are lots of tutorials on line to demonstrate the Disappear 9 Patch.

I quilted diagonal lines fairly wide apart and then quilted again at a 90 degree angle to the first lines of quilting.  Hand sewed the binding and it's ready for Victoria's Quilts.