pinwheels in process

 

when i nixed my original idea for a black "capel" sashing for "groovy liberty," i needed to come up with an alternative. i dug around in my stash and found this awful grunge (moda cross weave woven) i am using for a different, old stalled project called "emilia's sampler trip," or something. it's from my "instagram-not-blogging" era, so it's probably not even on the blog anywhere. anyways, this grunge fabric is here in my stash because of that project. 

i tried some of the other chambrays i have on hand as a sashing, but didn't like the effect with any of them. my eye fell on this grunge because it's light and neutral. i think it will blend well enough and not call too much attention to itself.

this is a look at the grunge as sashing. i want sashing to slightly enlarge the quilt and to separate the blocks so the pinwheels don't get lost in the secondary pattern when they're laid next to each other.

i really do think this fabric is horrible on its own, but it works for some things. it has a retro vibe to it that i think works nicely with the groovy prints i picked for this quilt. it just goes to show you can dislike a fabric in general but it has its place. some fabrics spark joy all on their own, and some are useful to make others shine.

these are the blocks togther. which is fine, just not what i want. i want to see my pinwheels as pinwheels this time.

something i have completed for this project - the next two sets of blocks. i got all the ones i turned around fixed and then put these next two sets together. i am really happy with both of these. they definitely have the vibe i wanted for my "groovy liberty."

somewhere along the way i realized i had my maths wrong. how many times have i said that recently? this time was extra bad - apparently i can't even do the most basic math anymore. i was making 8 blocks each of the 6 sets. when you need 42 blocks in 6 different sets, that's SEVEN blocks of each type, not 8. maybe i was originally going for 48 blocks before i realized i didn't have enough chambray for that? i don't know. all i do know is it took me way too long to recognize my mistake, resulting in me unpicking one block of each set so i could make my last sets.

here's a look at my selections for this wild and groovy tana lawn (can't remember the name at the moment). it's mostly pastel with red mixed in. i got more than enough pieces i needed from one wof x 2.5" strip i cut from my liberty piece, so i was able to be choosy about which to use. i picked the pieces ith the most red in them, the ones with the large flower pieces in them (on the left). you can see they have a slightly different impact and feel than the more tame pieces to the right. the extras go in the scrap bins for the next project.

this is a crummy studio lighting photo taken in the early morning before the sun came up, but i was having a blissful moment with the yellow "mitsi" pieces and had to snap this. "mitsi" was the first liberty print i warmed up to. (yes, i didn't always like liberty.) the yellow, which i originally used in "beauty for ashes," is unusual for liberty and such a pretty piece. that was my sunshine on this morning before the sunshine came along. 

once i have all the 2-piece units together and know my layout for the pinwheel, i can zip through piecing the blocks pretty quickly. i lay them out on the side of my machine table and put them together in order, chain piecing the whole set.

it's simple - flip the piece on the right over on top of the piece on the left, stitch. do the same for the bottom set of the block.

i clip the pairs apart when they're all done, and i have sets like this. i press the top open tot he right and the bottom set open to the left, which gives me a nesting pair. no need to clip the joining string between them.

somehow i still managed to do this once. oh, boy. i guess i wouldn't be me if i didn't. thank heavens for unpicking (aka: sewing repentance). it can be fixed.

i was really excited to get the last set of (7, not 8) blocks done. all i had left to do before joining the blocks was cut this piece of liberty "over the hills." this is one of those pieces that looked a little different when i came than i was expecting. the scale was a lot larger than i thought, so the pattern doesn't show up much in these 2.5" x 4.5" cut pieces. it 100% has the right look and i can live with the scale.

the problem was the colors (which were as i expected). i decided i could use some pastels even though i really wanted brights. but this piece has brown in it, which i haven't used anywhere else in the quilt. i thought it was okay. i went through the process of cutting and selecting the best pieces.

i liked the pieces with the stripey bits in them the best. but all the brown was a problem.

if you look at my sample pieces in the top photos of all the blocks laid out on the sashing fabric, you're probably thinking, "this looks fine? what are you worried about?" and in the photo (now) it does look pretty alright. but those browns, especially, were catching my eye in a bad way. the print style was right, the colors just weren't. the block in general was just too light and pastel. it needs something to balance the red more.

so i went on yet another internet hunt just once more. this time i went international and found some pieces i like from alice caroline across the pond. when they arrive, i should finally get this one squared away! i actually found more than one print in the right style and colors that looks like it will work. it makes me rethink the very first blocks set i did that has more traditional/less groovy pieces in it. 

but that would be so much more unpicking and i'm not into unnecessary unpicking for the sake of unpicking. that would probably be overboard. we'll make that decision when the fabric arrives and i decide i can't live without one or i can.

misc. little bits

some chain piecing d5 did for me. these are rows for the 16 patch blocks for our "edna" quilt.

normally, i jump back and forth between projects a lot, working on whatever suits my mood at the moment. i recently started three new projects in one day. i expected to be rotating amongst these as i went along. however, uncharacteristically, i'm actually using a different thread color for each project. so once i had this pink thread on the machine, i was locked in to working on "edna."

i dislike changing threads on my machine with a strong passion, which is why i usually piece with white thread exclusively. i'm not sure why i decided to do different thread colors on these three projects, other than that they have very different colors, but i'm actually going to have to stick with one project until the top is done! this spool is keeping me faithful for the moment. no project infidelity here. who even am i? 

 i spent a while fussy cutting these darling heather ross mice on white to use in the low-volume 16 patch squares for "edna." i'm using the ones that have pink clothed mice in "edna" and setting aside the ones in yellow, green, and blue for another project.

many of the mice are not perfectly centered, but i was able to cut the 2.5" squares i needed pretty well from this print with barely any waste. there are a few odd bits that aren't square that i can still use for scraps, and some sections in the thinner strips (1" - 1.5" i had to cut to get the 2.5" strips to come out right) that were just plain white. i trimmed those down around the printed pieces and discarded the white parts. all-in-all, i'm quite pleased with what i got out of this fat quarter.

while doing all this cutting for so many different projects at once, i've been so good about cutting small leftovers for scraps and filing them away in my scrap drawers (which i recently expanded). all the cutting mistakes or change-of-mind cast-offs have been going straight in the scrap drawers, which makes me feel like they aren't wasted after all. give them a new purpose and it makes me feel a whole lot better about not being able to use them wherever else they were going to go. i should have the precut makings of some scrap quilts on hand pretty soon. this is exciting! i'll need to figure out which patterns to use (hello, jolene's books).

the leftover strip pieces or squares are easy to put in their place. it's the larger pieces i don't want to reshelf but almost could that i'm having trouble making decisions about. for example, this piece that was 6.5" wide. 

because i don't have any specific scrap projects in mind that this fabric would be good for, i'm hesitant to commit it to any certain sizes of strips. i could cut a large variety and combination of sizes from this since i store scraps in increments of 1" to 5" wide. how do i decide what to do with this one?

i finally landed on cutting one 2.5" strip as that's the most versatile width. then i could put the remaining 4" strip away in the 4" drawer. in the future, if needed, i can cut it down to something else smaller. yes, i like this solution.

helping low-volumes stand out in a pattern

 i've had a few chances to get around to my arrow check blocks. i love how quickly they come together! that pile just grows in minutes. i have made all the blocks from the charm squares of "dream on" and have completed about half of my supplementary fabrics now. it might seem this is taking me a while to finish for such an easy block but the fact is i have only spent a few minutes here and there spread out over the few weeks i've been making this. anyone else with a good chunk of hours could have knocked this top out by now. for myself, i'm just pleased it's so quick relative to how slow i usually move.

 after i made my initial fabric pull, i noticed several of the fabrics were low volumes on white backgrounds and i was afraid they weren't going to be distinguishable from the background arrows once worked up. my first idea was to use other light-colored background squares in addition to the moda bella solid charms i was using. i even picked up yardage of two colors. but on reflection, i realized this was going to complicate my process a whole lot; that it would require me laying out all the squares before sewing anything so i could make the solid-colored arrows one color each and not just have a mottled background. that was more than i was willing to do so i just started working up the low-volume fabrics to see how they looked. i was pleasantly surprised to see that they were holding their own!

a few of the charms i cut still seemed like there was too much white in them after i cut them. this heather bailey "church flowers" print from "nicey jane" collection, for example. but i really wanted to use this print because it has the feel i'm going for and i just love it, too. on examination, i noticed there were large areas of color the right size, so i decided to fussy cut my charm squares out of those places. hey, presto! it worked.

 yeah, there was some definite bias cutting going on, but that didn't give me any problems when sewing. i explained to d1 my brilliant solution to the problem and she responded, "well, that looks really wasteful!" then i showed her how i was cutting the leftovers into triangle and rectangle scraps to be used in future scrap projects. she decided maybe i knew what i was doing a little more than she thought.

now i wouldn't normally be so free with a treasured fabric, but i have more yardage of this and i was only working with a 1/2 yard cut here so there was plenty of that left over once i cut enough charms. and now i have all these cute scraps to work with, too. all this fussy stuff has taken a little more time than just straight cutting-and-sewing did, but it's worth it every now and then to get it right. i'm all about moving fast when i'm able, but the end product has to be considered, too. i feel like i've found the right balance with this project so far. a few more short sewing sessions and i should have a top to show! if i'd stop starting new projects, that is.