Stash Report - Oct 20

It's been a while since I had anything to mention in my stash report, but today I have a completed top!  I finished the top from the Kaffe Fassett workshop a few weeks ago, and put together the backing for it yesterday.

The quilt will be a donation to Victoria's Quilts, once I finish admiring all my hard work :)  I spun the seams at every corner on the back of this quilt, to make sure it lies perfects flat.  The pressing was almost more time consuming than the sewing, because of that.

Then I played with some backing choices.  Flannel of course - that's a requirement for Victoria's Quilts.  After debating between these 3, I decided on the lighter brown fabric for the backing.

One other finish today - I finally! finished an embroidery block that I've been working on since January.  It really should not have taken this long, but I kept avoiding it, especially once I started on the black sections. But I think the rest of the blocks for this charity quilt are still waiting, so I didn't completely miss the deadline.

Fabric usage this week:

4 yards used for top
3 yards used for backing

Total this year: 195 1/2 yards out

Drop by Judy's blog for more stash reports today.

Design Wall Monday - Oct 14

Happy Thanksgiving, to all my Canadian readers.  I've been enjoying a nice relaxing long weekend, which has included a little bit of sewing.  I sewed all my squares into pairs, and now I'm putting the squares together into 4-patches.  Working my way across the quilt, slowly but surely.  I hope to finish this one so that I can have it quilted for December (even better if it was quilted before Nov 8, but that might be overly optimistic).  This is my quilt from the Kaffe Fassett workshop in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago.

Drop by Judy's blog for more design walls today.

Design Wall Monday - Oct 7

I wanted to have something (anything) on my design wall this week, since I've been pretty lax lately. So I pulled out my fabrics from the Kaffe Fassett workshop last week, and reassembled my quilt with the dark background. This was definitely my favourite from the few options I previewed at the workshop.

I think will sit on the design wall for a few days.  I want to get the current quilt off the long arm before this weekend, so I can take it back to the owner when I see her on Saturday.

Drop by Judy's blog for more design walls today.

The Tale of a Storm at Sea

This quilt has been in the making for over 2 years (since July 2011). It was originally intended to be a quilt for my son, before he went to university.  I made all the blocks over the course of about 5 months, and then stalled on the border.  I knew what I wanted to do, but the piecing and sizing of the border felt overwhelming at the time. So it went onto a shelf.

When I pulled it back out last year, I decided on the size of the quilt, figured out how much fabric I had left (ordered some more), and completed the pieced borders.  I thought the quilt was done, and added it to the "to be quilted" pile in May 2012.

At that point, I knew I was buying a long arm, so I waited. And then waited to get better at free motion quilting, and then waited for some other quilts to be done.  And FINALLY, in July this year got it out to do the quilting.  And at that point, discovered that I must have been dreaming when I finished it.  The size was completely wrong for its intended use, so it went back on the design wall, I dug out the last scraps of fabric from the making (lucky I still had it!), and adjusted the overall size of the quilt and added some new borders. That adventure is detailed here.  I ended up removing a row, and using those blocks on the back of the quilt.  And I extended the borders with an outer white border, because I really was not happy with the look when it ended right after the diamond border.

And THEN it could get onto the long arm.  And off.  And bound.  Only 27 months in the making :) my Storm at Sea quilt is complete, and perfectly sized for the double bed that now resides in the my son's old room (since he left for university over a year ago).

I'm linking up at the October finishing party over at A Stitch in Time.

Get it Done - October

Apparently I completely missed the September "Get it Done" post.  Not sure how that happened.  So, going back 2 months, this is what was on the table for August.

1. Storm at Sea is on the longarm, so I want to finish quilting it
2. Finish labyrinth top, and quilt it
3. finish binding Hunters Star, and Bear's Paw
4. bind Storm at Sea

As of today, here is my progress:

1. Done!
2. Done! (in September)
3. done (Hunter's Star) and not done (Bear Paw)
4. not done

In addition, I did finish quilting my mystery quilt, and bound it.  So at least some progress was made, even if it wasn't on a list anywhere.

For October, I'm keeping my plans minimal, and binding oriented apparently:

1. Bind Storm at Sea
2. Bind Bear's Paw 
3. Bind Labyrinth
4. Finish quilting Dresden plate (not mine)
     
   

Drop by Judy's blog to see what everyone else is planning this month.

Stash Repot

No new usage to report this week. But the Kaffe Fassett workshop yesterday may have resulted in enough inspiration to fuel a number of stash reports in the near future.

Total this year: 188 1/2 yards out

Drop by Judy's blog for more stash reports today.

Kaffe Fassett

I spent today at a wonderful workshop with Kaffe Fassett.  We were fortunate enough to have him in town, thanks to a collaboration between a local quilt store and knitting store.   The Running Stitch and Wool n' Things brought Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably to town for 2 workshops and a lecture.  The quilting workshop was all about colour, working with Kaffe's fabrics and one of the quilts in his "Shots and Stripes" book.

It was a wonderful opportunity to play with colours, and get some pointers and advice direct from both Kaffe and Brandon.  They encouraged us to step outside our comfort areas, and experiment with some bold and interesting colours and textures in the quilts.

I tried just about every background I could get my hands on, from light, to dark, and everything in between. Colours, solids, funky patterns.  So many choices, and so many different looks they brought to the quilts.

In the end, I settled on this background, and these colours.  I had to remove some of my favourites, because they blended too much with the background.  So, when I had some time left before the seminar ended, I took everything down and started again, trying to use my deep colours.  

I put them up, with a lovely grey background, thinking that would avoid the blending.  Kaffe and Brandon both pointed out that the contrast from the light grey to the dark solids was too great, and down they came again.  I ended up with a completely different look than the first time, but still without my deep colours.  I guess they just weren't meant to be.  I even tried using them as background at one point, but after playing with all the textures, they just felt too plain.

Here are some of the lovely combinations that were put together at the seminar.  As Kaffe said several times - it is amazing how many totally different quilts were put together from essentially the same palette of colours.