It's Time To Snuggle With The Squiggle Quilt

Just when I thought I wasn't going to have anything to post about this week since it seems I was having a hard time getting started working on any of my many projects waiting for me in the studio, I have a finally finished with my Squiggle Quilt.  It seems that my Bee Sisters and the others who joined Christa Watson's QAL were finishing theirs and I've only had the top made and the backing sewn.  I was away babysitting my granddaughter last week, which I like to mention my hubby and I make a great diaper changing team and I can still hold my breath for a very long time. Once I returned home this past Monday, I just didn't have the energy to climb down the stairs until Wednesday and once down there I went into quilt action and decided that I needed to finish one QAL and Squiggle it was.  Of course, like the many other times I have a quilt that is finally finished, the weather decided to be cold and gloomy.

I didn't have a hard time deciding on the quilting, after all a Squiggle quilt should be quilted with squiggly lines.  I only have a few quilting techniques in my repertoire and wavy, curvy lines is one of them--it's just a nice, relaxing way to quilt.  Also, as mentioned in a previous post, some of my triangle points do not line up since I unfortunately did not measure the charm packs before I started sewing and it turned out they were almost 5-1/4" and I also mixed it with 5" squares I cut from the yardage.  Even though I trimmed all the squares to 5", I knew some of my points were going to be off and some wavy quilting will be needed to make it less noticeable.  I followed Christa's technique of starting the quilting on the right side and I finished it on the left side which I have to say all four edges of my quilt were pretty straight.  Once you see my Squiggle quilt, you really can't see where the points don't line up, and if you can, you're standing too close to it.

With all of the colors in this quilt, I chose to "gray" everything else like the connecting corners, backing and the binding which I have to say is pretty perfect since I wanted to use a dark gray to accentuate the colors and I happened to have such a print and enough of it in the Blueberry Park stash. The only thing that I don't like about the Blueberry Park fabrics is the texture which has the feel of screen painting and makes the fabric, to me, feel stiff.  I used a Microtex Sharp needle for quilting and decided to machine quilt the binding since I thought it may be hard to hand sew.  I was looking forward to sewing the binding while watching Olympics but guess I could use the time to work on another project that awaits me.  Just last week, I thought I was ahead of the Postcards from Sweden QAL and now I am seeing from other posts I follow, some of the participants are already sewing their HSTs. Hopefully, I'll be sewing them this weekend. BTW, I have to mention that Hubby installed daylights in my studio which is in the basement and it has been a real game changer--photos taken in the studio never looked this bright and I can't believe I've been sewing in the dark for the past five years.

I wasn't expecting to love this quilt as much as I do now. There are so many different colors in the Blueberry Park fabric line and I used everyone of them except for the black and navy prints in this quilt.  The colors just reminds me of something from my childhood, I keep thinking of wrapped hard candy like Charms or maybe Jolly Ranchers.  The colors are just that yummy and am happy with the way my quilt turned out which is why I calling it Squiggle Delight.  I was thinking that I was going to gift this quilt but having second thoughts now, I'm needing to snuggle this quilt and hoping life will get brighter soon.

February has gone by way too fast and I have to confess that I have not even started on this month's UFO or Scrap projects.  I'm hoping to get my sew-jo back on soon.  I need lots of sunshine and less snow now.

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday, Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

And the QAL-ing Keeps Sewing Along

I'm still catching up with my QALs and have a finally finish: Micah's Come Calling Quilt/Playmat which I had planned to make in January for my January Scrap Attack and or Scrumptious Scraps QAL project which Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict is hosting for 2018.  I thought I should start and finish this quilt considering that it's February now and I will be seeing Micah this weekend for some grandmother babysitting duties while her parents get some serious download time.

At the beginning of the year, I was going to participate in the Scrap Attack which is more for organizing and precutting your scraps.  Last week, Sarah posted about the Scrumptious Scraps QAL (you can read about it here) and decided that this one was more to my liking since my project list for Scrap Attack involved using up certain scraps each month. I rather let sleeping scraps lie until I need them for a scrap project. The scraps I chose to work with in January were from several Basic Grey's collections which included leftovers from the signature wedding quilt I made for Micah's parents over four years ago.  Doesn't every baby need a calling quilt when they go visiting?  At least that's what I thought when I came up with another reason for making Micah another quilt. I think this is #9.

Here's a photo of the wedding quilt with the  gorgeous Basic Grey floral print from the PBJ collection.  I used whatever remnant I had along with the leftover strips used in the sashing.  I thought I share my signature block in this post since it still makes me laugh and it's the one I always use for other signature blocks.

The green and white gingham used for the sashing and the backing fabric which is from the last century were the only fabrics not part of the Basic Grey scraps.  I also wanted to use a plain fabric for the backing since Micah's mom tends to display the backs and not the front of the quilts and maybe because the backs are just that pretty.  This quilt measures 42" x 60" and hopefully this time I can snuggle with Micah and the quilt this time.

But then again, we may need to spend some time re-reading this book which I received from friends when Micah was born. I can't believe she's going to be one-year old next month and this time she might be reading the book to me.

Also finished this week, last Tuesday night to be more exact, were Blocks #3 (Nested Churn Dash) and #4 (Greek Cross) from the Classic Meet Modern QAL hosted by Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation.

This QAL started in January and each month, two blocks (maybe more if they're small) are made, which is a nice pace I can keep up with.  You can read more about the Classic Meet Modern QAL (here).  So far, two of the blocks are 24", one is 12" and two are 6".  I am finding out, no size is an easy size, my focus is just the same, and am finding that my seam ripper works well on all sizes. By the way, in case you're wondering, doesn't the blocks look wonderful against the white brick?  I just discovered photo backdrops and finally purchased one.  When I first received it, it looks like a velour blanket and the printing was pretty faint so I had my doubts but I'm very happy with the way the photos turned out. Now, I just have to make sure I put this away since I have a certain son who might think this is a blanket; it really does feel nice.

My top for the Squiggle QAL (you can read about it here) is finished and this week is the start of basting and quilting which is not going to happen until next week.  I'm really looking forward to doing some quilting with nice wavy lines to hide some of the over and under hangs of the triangle points.  This is what happens when you do not realize that the charm packs of Blueberry Park were not exactly 5" and were mixed in with the 5" squares I cut myself. Such a rookie mistake, I keep telling myself.

Today is the start of the Postcards from Sweden which Sandra from mmm!Quilts is hosting.  (You can read about the Postcards from Sweden QAL here).  For some reason, which doesn't happen very often, I am ahead of this QAL; I've already chosen my fabrics and cut all of my HSTs.  With some QALS, I find myself either ahead, on schedule or behind but in the end, but what really matters to me is that I finish.  Timelines are only a suggestion and sometimes I have a need to either start or finish another project off the grid which is what I'm feeling I want to do next week.  But then again I may just need some rest recovering from my very first babysitting gig in so many years.

I hope everyone is having a happy week and feeling some warmth, especially from the weather.  It's been way too cold in my neck of the woods.

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday, Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

Fassett February

This is my first February post and there's no better way to start off the month with a Finally Finish--my Kaffe Fassett Zig Zag Patchwork Throw.  This was a top I finished last year after taking his workshop last October and was on my 2018 Quilty Confessions- UFO Addition list to finish.  

I love the colors and fabrics in this quilt, they look velvety, don't they? I have a confession--this was not what I had envisioned; out of the twenty fabrics I brought to the workshop, I only ended up using eight of them and had to purchase the black and purple print from the vendor mall and my friend Carol, who brought her entire Kaffe stash in her suitcase with wheels, let me have one of her red stripe prints since she wasn't going to use it.  On a side note, I almost suffered whiplash at the beginning of the workshop because Kaffe mentioned that the Zig Zag pattern would look good in black and white fabrics, which I am pretty sure no one brought any, including Carol and myself, and he would be happy to help students choose black and white fabrics which could be purchased from the vendor mall. Carol decided she would like to do that and I turned my head in a snap at her and said "What!". Boy, what some people would do to get a little extra Kaffe time.  If I wasn't set on using the fabric I brought, I may have been tempted but then again no because I already have too much black and white fabric in my stash.

I'm pretty sure I was the only student whose color palette was inspired by the Grand Canyon so I bought fabrics with golds, browns, light grays and whites in addition to the eight I ended up using. When I showed this photo to Kaffe and Brandon Mabrey along with the fabrics, I don't know how they got me to change my mind or see things their way.  I did come away knowing the difference between low contrast where the fabrics accent each other quietly but nicely versus high contrast which would be a white fabric against dark fabric and according to Kaffe looks like a plastic shopping bag stuck on my quilt.  As you can see, my quilt is definitely low contrast.

It wasn't easy, but I managed to come up with a quilt top with just using ten fabrics compared to some of the other students who bought their entire stash to class and used the same  Kaffe color palette of blues, greens, reds, etc. in his books.  I'm pretty sure I was the only one who used my color palette of purple, gray, black and orange and if there was another one I would have been over at her table rummaging through her stash.  BTW, that's Carol's quilt on the left with the fabrics selected by Kaffe.  I don't do too well in workshops, I get too distracted by what others are doing and I sure was overstimulated seeing all those wonderful Kaffe fabrics on the other students' tables and worse of all, I had to rotary cut the diamonds myself.  I really would have liked to have used my die-cutter but the instructions were no pre-cutting before class.

And yes, I finally got a photo of Kaffe and me which for me is a pretty good momento along with the quilt.  I think we might have the same haircut.

And getting back to the quilt, I decided once the top was finished, it seemed that it should be a throw so I backed it with this wonderful rich purple Minky with zig zags.  There's no batting and only light quilting which is perfect for a throw.   Funny during the critique of my top in the workshop, Brandon said that I should back my quilt top with mink and good friend Carol said Minky and that's what I did; it really is perfect for this quilt.  While finishing this throw, I kept humming Lara's theme from Dr. Zhivago since I thought this would be perfect for a sleigh ride with a white horse pulling it but knowing me with the impending winter advisory with lots of snow we're having on Friday, I'll settle for snuggling with it in the warmth of my living room sipping some hot cocoa.

While I was on vacation, I decided to take my Kaffe appliqué project which has been fermenting for well over five years and I just kept putting this project off. I'm so glad that I brought it because it turned out that the resort where we were staying at had no Wi-Fi for the entire week.  It finally came back on the night before we were scheduled to leave so these blocks kept me occupied.  If I were fifty years younger, I would have been lost without Wi-Fi, but in truth, it's nice to have but really not needed as long as there's free Wi-Fi elsewhere.

And last but not least, I will be joining Sandra of mmm! Quilts who will be hosting the Postcards from Sweden QAL which will be starting next week.  It should be no surprise that I've picked out my fabrics which are Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons with a few Peppered Cottons added.  I also will be happily die-cutting my 4-1/2" HST.

You can read about the Postcards from Sweden QAL here:

Sandra, with all of the other Linky parties she is hosting, pattern designing and an Island Batik Ambassador, is also one of the Co-hosts for the 2018 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop which is near and dear to my heart.  I participated in it last year and it was an invaluable learning experience as well as being fun and definitely a "must do" if you are a new quilt blogger as I was.  This is a great way to meet new and experienced bloggers, introduce yourself to Blogland and many new friendships will be formed.  Registration started on February 1st and you can read about the 2018 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop here:

Now that I'm getting back into my quilting groove, I have some catching up to do with the other QAL's (Classic Meets Modern, Squiggy, and Scrap Attack) I started before I left on vacation which means I have to stay focus for a little while.  It should be no surprise that I bought some fabric while on vacation and really would like to make something with it now.  Stay warm and if you're going to be experiencing snow like I am, i'ts going to be good sewing weather.

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday, Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday,  Tish's Adventure In Wonderland, UFO Addition