TRY THEN TRY AGAIN

 The red fabrics I have don't exactly match the red I've already used.  But, there was one Kona red that was close enough.  I wish I had another red print.  But, I made some arcs with the Kona Chinese Red.

It was okay, but the solid fabric just doesn't look right.  So, I thought I'd try a yellow print.  I found a small piece in the scrap bucket and made two arcs from them.  These are much better.

MAKING MORE COGS

I got the other two arcs of the 14" cogs made and started on the black 7" arcs for the little quilt I'm working on.  I got all 4 of them made while visiting with the Brave Patch Friday group.  These are not sewn together yet.

I hesitated at this point because I'm not sure what color cogs to put in the center part.  The Mickey Mouse fabric has only red, black, white and a little light grey.  I'm thinking about adding another color.

 

LITTLE QUILT STARTED

 I enjoyed making the Cogs so much I decided to use the Mickey Mouse fabric I just purchased to make a little quilt made up of the Cogs.  I'm challenging myself to make all three sizes.  I started with the 14" arcs.  And the red fabric I used needed to be fussy-cut to get the pattern all  oriented the same way in each cog.

I got a good start:

COGS WORKSHOP

 I got out to the studio early, 7am, to attend a Jenny Haynes Cogs Workshop through the Sew Squad.  

Jenny is so good about sharing all her tips and tricks.  This workshop was about Freezer Paper Piecing.  

Here's what I had made by the end of the day:

WEEK 18 OF PLAYCATION 2024

 Here is the improv block I made for Week 18 of Quilters Playcation 2024 with Cheryl Arkison.

BACKING FOR PEACH FUZZ

 I spent the last few days sewing the scraps from Peach Fuzz together to form a few slabs.  The scraps were mostly curves which made it challenging, but fun.  I was pleased that I used pretty much all of the scraps, with only a few small pieces left.

I used those slabs to make the backing for Peach Fuzz.

SATURDAY WITH KIDS

Darrell picked up Skyler and Scarlett for the weekend.  We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant.

Then, back home, we painted rocks.

 

PEACH FIZZ IS A TOP

 I've been working on piecing the blocks for the Peach Fizz quilt.  The curves are coming together very nicely with a lot of pinning.  I got all of the rows finished and sewn together this morning.

It's a top!

 

PEACH FIZZ ON THE WALL

 I always said I'd never make a T-shirt quilt, but that's what I'm doing right now.  I cut up my Volunteer t-shirt from this year's Quiltcon.  It was the color of this year's Color of the Year by Pantone, Peach Fizz.  I added some more shades of peach, including a very dark rust-orange.  I threw in a few blues.  Then as I was putting the pieces up on the wall I decided it needed some white.  I looked through my stash, hoping I'd have a white with peach or orange little dots or something - and of course, I didn't.  So, I went with solid white.  The pieces still need to be sewn into blocks and assembled.  

Here's how it looks today:

CHINESE GARDEN SKETCH

 I met up with the Seattle Urban Sketchers at the Seattle Chinese Garden next to South Seattle Community College.

We gathered at the entrance and introduced ourselves, then we all dispersed to sketch.

I choose a rock in the shade with a view of the entrance to the building, which turned out to be a mistake.  It was cold and breezy.  And the rock was cold and hard.

But, I really didn't notice any of that while I was busy sketching.  But, as I drew near to finishing, I realized how cold I was.  I quickly finished up and left before the throw-down, where we share our sketches, which was still more than an hour away.

WEEK 17 IMPROV BLOCK

Here is week 17's block of the Quilters Playcation 2024 with Cheryl Arkison.  It was all about inserting strips.  I started mine out with a piece I had sewn together of leftovers from a previous block.

She also talked about several methods to insert strips, I learned two new methods, both of which are very good.

 

ALL THE STRAIGHT LINES DONE

 I decided to do all of the straight line 1" spaced vertical lines on the Coordinates quilt.  Once I get those done then I will roll it back and fill in the colored squares with their own color of thread and different designs.

So, I finally got all of the straight line quilting done on the background.  Now begins the tying off and burying of all of those threads!

4-PATCH IMPROV

 I joined Quiltfolk's BOM for 2024 - Break the Rules!  This month they discussed a 4-Patch quilt that is featured on the cover and inside Roderick Kiracofe's book, Unconventional and Unexpectedd: American Quilts Below the Radar, 1950-2000.

I wanted to make a replica of that quilt.  I looked through my stash and came up with these Essex Linens, a canvas print and a few others.  

Here is the original:

And here is my interpretation, it is about 46" by 64":

COLOR REMOVER

I recently bought some fabric online.  I was a bit disappointed when it arrived - it was darker than I had wanted.  It was suggested by a friend that I try using Rit Color Remover to tone it down.  That sounded like a great idea.  Here's what happened.

The directions and reviews were adamant about doing this process outside because of the fumes.  So I took my hot plate and big dyeing pot outside and got some hot water started.  The water needed to be above 200*.  It was suggested to bring it to boiling.  I waited and waited and waited.  I finally got out my food thermometer - it was 160*.  It never got any hotter than that.  After waiting for over an hour, I gave up and boiled the water in the house and then took it outside to the hot plate and stirred in the solution.  That was going to be as good as it was going to get.

The instant I put the blue fabric into the solution it turned a dark yellow brown.  Oh my - not what I was expecting!  I left it in the solution for the required 20 minutes, hoping it might revert to the light blue I was wanting.  Ha!  That didn't happen.

After I took that fabric out, I dipped, very quickly, a plum colored fabric in, hoping it would turn a shade or two lighter.  Boom, it turned yellow too! A beige yellow.  But, the yellow fabric I dipped next did turn a lighter yellow.

Experiment Fail:

That yellow and white fabric will not worked for what I wanted it for, so it will end up in the pile set aside to use as backings.

BLUE COLOR BOX

I just received this month's Color Box of Artisan Cottons by Windham, sent to me by Quilted Strait quilt shop.  These are all shot cottons.

PLAYCATION WEEK 16

 It's Tuesday at 1pm!  Time for Cheryl Arkison and her Quilter's Playcation 2024.

Here is this week's improv block.  

ROLLED IT FORWARD

 I finally got that first section of the quilting on my Coordinates quilt done and was able to roll it forward to the next section.

Of course there was a bit of fussing to do to get the top lined up to continue the parallel quilting lines.

BACK AT IT

 Finally, I got back to work on the quilting of my Coordinates quilt.  It's been on the longarm for quite a while, languishing.  I had a lot of other things on my mind, was preoccupied and a bit stressed out.  So, it didn't get the attention it needed.  

But, I'm back at it and making progress.

WORKING ON THE BLUE SLABS

 I'm making more blue Slabs and adding them to the wall.  When should I start thinking about joining them together?

Not yet.

BACK TO THE SLABS

 I got out the blue Slabs I made last Friday with Cheryl Arkison on Sew Squad.  And, got busy making more.

I put them up on the wall as I made them.

Love it!

And then, since it's Tuesday at 1pm, it's time for Cheryl again!  It's the Quilters Playcation 2024.

This week's block is about pointy things.  This is week 15.

MONDAY CLEANUP

 First thing up in the studio, I started cleaning up.  I've finished working on the scrappy Checkerboards but the two scrap buckets were a mess.  They were all mixed together. 

During the Brave Patch Monday Sewcial I started sorting them back into their buckets.  I didn't think I'd made a dent on them, but I was surprised that they fit much better now - not overflowing anymore.  So, I guess it worked!

I also put all of the fabrics, mostly greys, away that I had used on the Sunrise quilt.  So the studio is looking a lot better and the cutting table is cleared off.

CHECKERBOARDS TOP

 After lots of missteps, backups and restarts, I finally got the Checkerboards 15-17 top done!

Yea!  It's about 70" by 87".

BABY QUILT FINDS HOME

 While at the birthday party yesterday, I gave my cousin some baby quilts to donate to an organization she is familiar with. 

I also gave one to another cousin to give to her brother's brand new grand-baby.

She sent me this picture today of the happy recipients with their quilt.

70 and 91

 My cousin Clayton was born on my Mom's 21st birthday.  He says they've never celebrated their birthdays together.  This year was Clayton's 70th, so we figured it was time to remedy that.

A lot of the family got together at cousin Ron's in Lacey for a big birthday celebration.  It was so nice seeing everyone.  Ron and Marva have a beautiful home and everyone had a great time.

The April birthday kids.

SLAB WORKSHOP

 I signed up for Sew Squad so I could go to a SLAB Workshop with Cheryl Arkison.  And it was so much fun.  

I took out my Blue Scrap Bucket and got to work.  First Cheryl had us sort our scraps.  She started with color first, but I already had mine sorted by color.  Then we sorted by size.  I had a lot of narrow strips, so I sorted those into their own pile.

Then we started with sewing the little pieces into a bit bigger pieces.  And we were off!

Here's what I had after the workshop:

IMPROV WEEK 14

 Here's my interpretation of Cheryl Arkison's week 14 of Quilters Playcation 2024 improv block:

MORE THAN HALF WAY

 I'm making quicker progress now that the squares and blocks are a little bigger.  I got the top half of the Checkerboard quilt top done - all except one seam to join the two big chunks together.  And, with the bottom half half-way completed I'm more than half way done.  But, then I'm probably going to take off some of the border I've done and re-do it.  Two steps forward, one step back.

THIRD MONTH OF SEATTLE BOM

 I made this month's blocks for the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild's Block of the Month for 2024.

CHECKERBOARDS

 I've been working on this scrappy Checkerboard project for a while now.  I've got the left side pretty much together.  Almost every seam is a partial seam.  There's a lot of head scratching and figuring and constructing more pieces to make every thing fit together. 

It can be exhausting, but it's also very exciting.

PLAYCATION NUMBER 13

 Here is my improv block that I made with Cheryl Arkison's Playcation Adventure.

CHECKERBOARDS

 While the Sunrise quilt was monopolizing the design wall I haven't been able to do much else.  

But, I started making checkerboards (4-patches, 9-patches...etc) from two of my scrap buckets, Magenta and Purple.  And I added some greys.  I was surprised that I don't have many grey scraps.

So, when I took the completed Sunrise down and folded it up, I was able to arrange the checkerboards I've made so far up on the design wall.

I think I need to make more and I've run out of bigger scraps.  But, I do have lots of fabric.  Don't worry.

END OF FIRST QUARTER

 I've been making a Sunrise block, pretty much every day since January 1st.  If I missed a day, I caught up the next time I was in the studio.  Today was the last block needed for this quilt top.  The Seattle Sunrise Q1 quilt is a top!  It's 70" by 84.5" and needs a good pressing.

I was also sewing the cutoffs, from trimming the blocks to size, together and it formed a really long piece, probably over 100".  And I also started just randomly sewing some of the other cutoff parts together because there were so many.  I think these pieces deserve to be a quilt of their own.  There's still a lot of scraps and I'll keep working on those.

Here's what the daily block would look like before I trimmed it to size.  I made them oversized because as I added the curves the blocks would become weird shaped.  

I kept really good records of the time of the sunrise each day, the colors I saw and the conditions.  I made some forms in excel.

I have three more sheets for the rest of the year.  I've been saying that when I finished this first quarter I was done.  But, I thought of an idea that I'd like to try.  So, I'm going to keep records about the next quarter and make blocks for it.... I think.  I just don't want to be tied to making a block every day.  And, I don't want to get way behind either.  So, we'll see how it goes.

WEEK 12 OF PLAYCATION

 I tuned in at 1pm to Cheryl Arkison's Instagram to play along as she revealed this week's improv block for the Quilter's Playcation Adventure 2024.

I didn't measure anything until it was too late and ended up having my block be 'sideways' .  Cheryl's block was square, mine are rectangular.  So it works out just fine.

BIRD WATCHERS BOM

 Wonderfil Threads is offering a free Block of the Month, Bird Watchers.  They will have patterns for Foundation Paper Pieced (FPP) and another for wool applique.

I downloaded the FPP pattern and made the first one.  It is a 12" block.

PLAYCATION WEEK 11

 I tuned in to Cheryl Arkison's Instagram account at one pm today for Week 11 of her Quilter's Playcation Adventure.

This week was another easy block.  But, I altered it a bit.