Skyfall

Since I wasn’t home on National Sew A Jelly Roll Day on September 18th, I still wanted to observe it and just finally finished my Skyfall Quilt this past weekend. Looking at this quit, you may think it’s an improv quilt made without a specific intention, but it’s not, it’s more improvise to me because it was made from fabric already set aside and a pattern which didn’t quite worked out as planned.

 

Involved in the making of Skyfall was a Jelly Roll of Janet Clare’s Aubade along with a charm pack and yardage of the same line paired  with HST blocks and yardage of her Nocturne fabric line which came out afterwards. Four years ago, I designed a pattern for Moda Bake Shop called Jelly Roll Charm Chase and always wanted to make another one with the Aubade Jelly Roll and Charm Pack but never did partly because I designed another pattern later called Staggered Strips and Squares which for me is an easier pattern to make. If you’ve made a Jelly Roll Race quilt, there comes a point in the pattern where you have to cut a panel consisting of 32 rows and maybe 120” wide in half vertically and I always have a problem cutting up two equally sized panels. There has been several times I had to even up the panels by at least six inches. I find it easier to sew the rows with strip sets already precut to size rather than cutting the rows to size later. Also with the Staggered Strips and Squares pattern, you can space the fabrics more evenly and avoid globs of the same fabric/color being the same spot which can happen with a Jelly Roll Race quilt. My original plan for the Skyfall quilt was to use the Staggered Strips and Squares pattern but  modified it so the strip sets were 8”(finished) instead of the usual 4” to go with the 8”(finished) HST blocks made several years ago and four-patches made from the Aubade charm pack. Also, the rows would be set vertically instead of horizontally.

After the strip sets were sewn, I knew it wouldn’t look right with them mixed together with the 8” blocks on the same row so I decided to make separate panels of  strip sets  and 8” blocks. Fortunately this change did not affect the the number of strip sets already cut. 

But “dabnabbit” as one says while in the act of improvising, the panels of 8” blocks sewn together were shorter than the strip set panels by 2.5” or 3.5” so extra strips needed to be added and weren’t too noticeable. Of course I didn’t find out the differences in size until I sewed the two panels together the first time because I assumed the block panels were going to be the correct length. I found out while working on Skyfall, that Aubade and Nocturne fabric lines was inspired by the music composed for either the evening or morning skies so I should have been able to hear maybe Claude Debussy “Clair de Lune” playing in my head. But no, instead I heard the sounds of pounding, sawing and jackhammering trying to improvise to get these panels to fit together along with some salty language. 

After much noisy improvising, the top was done and surprisingly while working on it, I did not have a final name for this quilt. When I was going to make a quilt with just HST, inspired by a quilt made by Crazy Mom, Amanda Nyberg, I was going to call it Nightfall. Since there were a lot of light fabrics mixed in with the blues, I wanted to name it reflecting both the night and morning skies and maybe a little disappointment with the way the quilt looked at first, so I jokingly considered calling it Nightmare or Downfall.

Happily while quilting it with a combination of straight and wavy lines, I came up with the name Skyfall which came with a song with the same name by Adele. And yes I was singing it and playing the song while machine quilting which went well and liking Skyfall even more partially due to this quilt finally getting a nice proper name. I used Aurifil #2610 Light Blue Gray for the top and #2605 Gray for the bottom.

Here’s a photo of the backing which is the Jungle Jive print from Blank Textile found in the backing vault.  I thought showing the backing would answer any questions as to why I used  a different color thread for the bottom. The binding is a very dark Navy print from Aubade which I almost wasn’t going to use because it was too dark but decided to use it to justify the dark prints in Skyfall. Plus I had ordered it from a shop in Alaska several years ago after much searching for it and didn’t want the trip to be for naught.

Skyfall measures 64”x80” which is a little too large for the Master Quilt Holder to hold up comfortably. We went to the park for a photo shoot and he was willing to stand up on a park or picnic bench in order for the quilt to hang right but the Wind was just too breezy. Maybe Mother Nature thought I should have named the quilt Windy since there is a song that goes with that name.

Well it turned out the best photo was taken after our park visit from our front porch off to the side where all of the blues showed up beautifully, especially the medium blues. The Wind did not follow us home which made me think of the adage “there’s no place like Home” and did confess to the Master Quilt Holder that we didn’t need to go the park after all. I don’t think he really care since there was no falling off the benches involved.

I had a pretty productive month in September; four Finally Finishes which two commitments were met, a DrEAMi and Skyfall which I’m calling a just because I could when you’re home for five days. Also, with these Finally Finishes meant writing four posts in one month which is something I have not done in awhile. When I started my Blog, I used to write weekly posts which have now evolved into monthly posts for the past two years. But surprise, surprise, I will be writing another Post for October 1st which is the Five Year Anniversary of my something rosemade Blog. I’m doing this mainly to have a record of this milestone and mostly will be just stats, so now I’m off to do some compiling.

P.S., On my last post, I mentioned that I’ve been on a fabric purchasing binge lately which I attributed it to observing my 25 Anniversary of being a Quilter and maybe instead of buying 25 yards of fabric I should instead buy 25 lbs. Well, I am just loving the comment made by Nancy’s husband who said I should purchase 25 bolts of fabric which immediately put him in contention for Best Quilt Husband Ever and had me thinking which bolts of fabrics I would buy. So, maybe a new laptop for my 5 Year Blog Anniversary would be a nice way gift since there’s only so much fabric one can buy, right?

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT Thursday 

The Big Cat Crossing Quilt: A DrEAMi and a Finally Finished for the End of June

Last January, when I made my Staggered Strips and Squares Quilt,  the Hinto Minto, and posted the sort-of tutorial, my plan was to make another one showcasing the black and white Cotton + Steel Neon Snow Leopard print and some of my fun prints in my stash.  During the past six months, in between QALs, projects, etc., I only managed to cut and sew the strips for the first round and only found time this month to work on the quilt to finally finish it in time for the June DrEAMi link-up hosted by Sandra of mmm Quilts.

I modified the pattern for the Big Cat Crossing Quilt by:

• cutting the panels of the "Cat" print 8-1/2" x 12-1/2" because I really wanted to showcase this fun print 
• the 4-1/2" x 8-1/2" accent blocks were set vertically along with some of the 81/2" square blocks
• the quilt measures 54" x 72" (approx.)

I machine quilted wavy, organic lines with a variegated gray thread with white thread on the bottom and much to my surprise turned out better than I expected.  I love how these quilting lines look on the "Cat" print; it really gives them some movement.

Once again, there was some indecision on my part as to the backing.  I had some 60" wide black and white print from IKEA which I wasn't completely happy with using and finally made up my mind that I would. But then I decided to take one more look in my stash and found the black and white Cross fabric which I thought would be perfect since the quilt is called Big Cat Crossing. I didn't have enough of the Cross print so I had to make a pieced back, which is not my favorite thing to do, by sewing another black and white print on the sides.  Luckily, since I don't make pieced backs very often, I managed to  center the quilt top  evenly with the backing which I didn't think of doing when I was basting.

The Big Cat Crossing Quilt was bound in the Cotton + Steel black and white Netorious print.   I'm beginning to become a fan of machine binding, not because it's faster than doing it by hand but I like it's another way to accent the quilting by using the same color thread for the binding.

What a wonderful way to end the month of June with a DrEAMi!  If I can toot my own horn, this is a great pattern for the 2.5" strips you can find in your stash.

I'm one of the twenty-two Quilt Bloggers who will be participating in the Fabulous Freebies Blog Hop hosted by CalicoJean of MooseStash Quilting. The Blog Hop will be from August 20-24th and Bloggers will be posting their favorite online free quilt patterns.  I will be posting my Staggered Strips and Squares tutorial on Thursday, August 23rd and will include my Big Cat Crossing Quilt and another quilt I have in the works.  Details are still being worked out and there may be sponsor giveaways.

Finally, I like to give one last shoutout for June which is sadly ending too soon.  I am amazed that I was able to finish this quilt in the wonderful month of June which started very busy for me with the projects completed earlier in the month.  I celebrated my Golden Anniversary of my Sweet Sixteenth birthday (another way to say I turned 66), went on a eleven day road trip  and visited my friend Mary Etherington in Iowa, went to the Quilt Museum in Lincoln, NE and finally ended up in Granby, Colorado where I discovered, The Fabric Nook, a gem of a quilt shop where I indulged in several fabric purchases.  We also made several side trips to Steamboat, where I met up briefly with a fellow Bee Blogger,  from 2017 and FB friend, Nancy Bekedam of Grace and Piece Quilting, visited the Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, where I was able to photograph my two "Colorado" quilts: Whitewater River Rafting (Regatta) and my Modern Neutral Jelly Roll Charm Chase next to a flowing river on a fence with barb wire--ouch, don't think that will happen again and a visit to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden.  Soon after we arrived home, my darling granddaughter, Micah and her mother came for almost a six day stay.  So I think I did pretty well with finishing the Cat Crossing Quilt and my June Quilt, my UFO finish for this month.

There's been enough excitement this month to hold me over for the next couple of months.  I'm looking forward to staying home and planning on finishing up some projects on my never-ending list such as quilting my Plus Playtime Quilt in which the link-up is in early July. Stay cool and dry since we Midwesterners having been experiencing too much rain and heat lately which is good inside sewing weather for me.

Linking up with: mmmquilts, DrEAMi June Linky Party, Cooking Up Quilts, Main Crush Monday, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Oh Scrap!, My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Friday 

Hometown Girl Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt

This week I am excited to show you my Hometown Girl Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt. For the past two weeks I've been working on two Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilts (I posted the Autumn Woods quilt last week, you can read the post here ).

The Hometown Girl fabric line was designed by  Pat Sloan for Moda and was available in two lines; regular prints and batik which I chose for this quilt.

Back in May, Moda announced that September 16th will be National Sew A Jelly Roll Day, (you can read about it here) when quilters will be encouraged to finally break out the Jelly Rolls they've been saving (I think the word "hoarding" is a more appropriate word) and making something for them, for their family or friends or for charity (there are several quilt drives for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma which you can check out on the Internet).  Moda has done a pretty good job of promoting this event with their designers posting patterns or giveaways on their blogs.  Even though I have a die-cutter and can cut my own 2.5" strips, there are times I can't resist buying a jelly roll especially when they are on sale. The Jelly Roll Charm Chase pattern is the one I designed using a Jelly Roll and a Charm Pack of the same fabric line and it was chosen to be a Moda Bake Shop pattern back in June (you can find the pattern here) and (read about my experience here).

It's just purely coincidental that I've now made two Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilts with fabric lines that had "Hometown" in the name but this is the first time I've made one in batiks and I think this might be my favorite version so far.  The nice thing about working with batiks is that there's no wrong side, and I've learned, there is selvedge even though it doesn't look like it.  I had to do some research online to verify this because I was tempted not to trim the strips.

And yes, I am in love with the wavy organic lines machine quilting I did for this quilt.  I've been seeing other quilters use three different thread colors lately but being that I have trouble picking just one color, I decided to use a variegated teal thread and am very happy how it accentuated the fluid lines of the quilting.  I think this is one of the reasons why I love this quilt so much. Before quilting, this quilt measured 58"x72" but because of the intense quilting the length shrunk 2"--wow, wasn't expecting that.

As mentioned before, I've already made four of the Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilts and thought I post a photo of them so you can see how this pattern works with other types of fabric design.  This pattern can be easily adapted to using your own 2.5" and 4.5" squares cut from your fabric stash and I'm thinking I would like to make one with the many Asian prints I have in my stash.  There are so many possibilities with my stash and it could be just something I can do when I want to make an easy quilt which is pretty often. Of course when I do make this pattern from my stash, I will have to change the name to Strippy Square Race since no Jelly Roll or Charm Squares would be involved.

I went into writing this post thinking I only had a few Jelly Rolls but now realized that I had seven of Moda's and three from other fabric lines--ten in all and now I'm thinking Moda probably had me in mind for this day.  Just a little disclaimer here, I had taken a photo in my basement studio of all of the Jelly Rolls in my stash and I thought the photo would be better if it appeared to have been taken outside, so PicMonkey photo editing once again came to the rescue. (Hmmm, I could put them on the bison from my Yellowstone photo again). I know of one quilter/friend (her name rhymes with Bee) who has more than me and between the two of us we should be participating in a Jelly Roll Month.  The one problem I have with Jelly Rolls is untying the pretty ribbon and using them.  I know from my own sons and from watching the Big Bang Theory, that action figures increase in value only if the packaging stays intact but I don't think it's for investment purposes, (although that's what I going to tell my Hubby now), that I'm saving my Jelly Rolls.  I know when I see the right pattern, I'll use one and there's been several patterns I've seen lately that is calling for one of these Jelly Rolls to come out and play.

My post is ahead of National Sew A Jelly Roll Day and was done in the anticipation of the arrival of my Granddaughter Micah Rose who is staying with me this week and won't be leaving until Saturday.  I knew there would be no participating in this event on the scheduled day because there's a priority who comes with a big smile and thinks Jelly Rolls are toys.

I hope everyone will have time to sew a Jelly Roll, either this Saturday or any other day.  I know there are many of us who have heavy hearts and minds during these past weeks with all of the hurricanes, the worries for our families/friends and the damages it's causing or caused.  I am working on sending a fabric package to the West Houston Quilt Guild who are in need of supplies (you can read The Constant Quilter's (Wendy Caton Reed) post here) and I know there will be other organizations/groups I will be sending one to also. Because of this, I won't be posting an update of my Minus 100 Yards Challenge this time because I pretty sure I'm going to be meeting my goal 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?

A Finally Finish: Autumn Woods

Since arriving home from Yellowstone last weekend and reuniting with my sewing studio, I have been focused on Jelly Rolls and quilts for the upcoming National Sew A Jelly Roll Day (you can read about it here) on Saturday, September 16th.  One of my favorite jelly roll quilt patterns is the Jelly Roll Race which is a great quilt to make when you just want to sew easy especially after working on a mind-numbing project like maybe a Gypsy Wife Quilt. (It's been almost two years since I made mine and I'm still in recovery mode).  I designed a variation of the Jelly Roll Race Quilt called Jelly Roll Charm Chase which combined a Jelly Roll and a Charm Pack of the same fabric line together and it was chosen to be a Moda Bake Shop pattern back in June (you can find the pattern here).

Prior to this pattern being published, I already made two Jelly Roll Charm Chase quilts several years ago and the Autumn Woods was the second one I made.  This quilt is different from the Jelly Roll Charm Chase quilt pattern being I did not use a charm pack for this quilt but instead 4.5" cut squares of the same fabric from the same line of Kate & Birdie's Autumn Woods fabric. This quilt  measures 60"x68" which is a little shorter than the pattern because only two additional strips were added for the border instead of four strips.  I made this top several years ago and for some reason I didn't like the way it turned out which can happen when you make a Jelly Roll Race Quilt.  But sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder, because after finally quilting and binding it, I really like the quilt now. It's perfect for the season and will look nice on the living room couch.

Autumn Woods was lightly quilted with only quilting on each row so it's very soft and cuddly which I like.  It's the first large quilt I machine quilted on Hazel, my new Juki HZL F600 sewing machine.  I'm not too happy with the way Hazel handled the quilt, there was some drag and fabric pushing resulting in some re-basting, but I sure do love the serpentine stitch.   I'm also not use to quilting on a small harp space and maybe Hazel would do better with just baby or smaller quilts.

One of the reasons why the quilt top languished in the studio is I couldn't decide on the backing which for me sometimes takes longer than picking fabric for the top because of my indecisiveness if the fabric used for the backing might be needed for a future top--it's sort of like a commitment issue. After agreeing and commenting on a blogger's post that making pieced backings was not one of my favorite things to do, I found myself making a pieced backing, in fact, I ended up making three pieced backings that week.  It's still not one of my favorite things to do although it is a great way to use up the fabric stash.

Here's a sneak peek of a new Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt I'll share on next week's post.  I've already finished the top and should be ready to start machine quilting this weekend.  The backing is ready to be sewn and this time there was no commitment issues.

Last week I shared some photos of my Backseat Sewing Studio project and thought I would post photos of all the blocks made which were two small runners and 18 blocks.  Just a reminder these were sewn driving to and from Yellowstone and not during because I did not want to miss any of the scenery.  Sadly, I think we're done traveling for the year except maybe for visiting my son and his family who live four hours away. We may be traveling with our two dogs: Dewey will be sitting in the front seat next to Hubby and Sophie will be in the back seat with me and there is no way she is going to let me sew, my arms are meant for holding her.

I'm still not ready to update my Minus 100 Yard Challenge but I will say after the next calculations, my total is going to look pretty good finally.  I still can't believe I did not visit one quilt shop during vacation.

I'm 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?
Busy Hands Quilts:  Finish Or Not Friday