RIBBONS

 Today Joe gave us two narrow strips of fabric.  He showed us how he draped fabric to create a quilt that he showed us.  He wanted us to drape our strips and figure out how to sew them into a background.

I was burned out.  This was not for me.

So, I sketched for a bit.  While I was sketching I came up with an idea and began to piece it.

This is as far as I got today.

LOG CABIN AROUND TOP

 I've spent most of my free time sewing on this Log Cabin Around for the last week or so.  And today I got the top finished.  It finishes at 68" by 83".  Perfect.  And, happily, it's reduced two scrap buckets by quite a bit.

SEWING STRIPS TOGETHER

 I working on the Log Cabin Around, sewing scrap strips together, then sewing them Log Cabin style around and around and around.  Today I took time out to finish sewing all of the same sized strips together into long, long rolls.

The only thing left in the container are really narrow strips.

AROUND THE CABIN

 Went around and around the Log Cabin today, adding more strips.  

TUESDAY TO-DO

 I was expecting to make this week's improv block today, but Cheryl had something come up and postponed it until tomorrow.

So, I was straightening the studio up a bit and ran across a container of strips I'd sewn together into very long strips.

I started sewing them together in a Log Cabin style.  I just kept going round and round until Jelly insisted we go in for dinner.

I can see doing this until it's a bed quilt.  

WEEK 20 OF PLAYCATION

 I tuned into Cheryl Arkison's Instagram account for her weekly improv block lesson.

I sorta followed her instructions.  But since my block is rectangular, not square, it turned out completely different.

NOT EXACTLY LIKE JOE'S

 I started working on what was supposed to be the project Joe showed us yesterday in his Quilt Freedom Workshop.  I wanted to make something that would work with my other 'Gifts' blocks.  That meant more orderly, less improv-y.  I made a strip set but didn't want to cut into it until I knew how it would look.

I made a simulation of the strip set on paper, then experimented with it.  This first one is more like Joe demonstrated.  It ends up looking like jagged lightning.

But I cut the complete strip set like this, and liked it a lot better.  

So I cut the strip set into 4" sections then cut them diagonally and sewed them back together.  Then I laid them out to see how that would look.  I was surprised at how long they would be.

I experimented with how they'd look if I sewed them back together crookedly.

Then I cut one of the units diagonally the other direction and sewed it back together.

This was interesting.  I'm going to sleep on it and decide what to do tomorrow.

TOP FINISHED AND NAMED

I've been working on the Pieced Ribbons project since taking the workshop with Sarah Bond.  I put the last seam in it this afternoon.  The top is done and I finally named it - City Noise.

PIECED RIBBONS

 Yesterday and today I attended the Pieced Ribbons zoom workshop with Sarah Bond @slbphilly.  I'm using the strip sets I've been making all week and making more with smaller strips.

STRIP SETS

 I've been making strip sets for an upcoming class.  It takes a lot longer than one would think.  I still have lots more to make.

GOLD AND PURPLE

 I started a new project.  I'm going to use the gold to brown fabrics in my number 23-24 scrap bucket, which is overflowing, along with a much less full bucket of it's compliments, purples.

I want to use the same method I used when I made Blissfully - strip sets.

I'm not sure it's going that well.

STRIP QUILT TOP DONE

 I got all of the sections of the Strip Quilt put together finally.  There was some head-scratching and adjustments made trying to figure out how to fit them to each other.  I used a lot of partial seams.

I'm mostly happy with it.  

I also got the binding onto the little Plaid Tumbler quilt, it's 30" by 40".  I used some 'leftover' plaid binding.  I think I made all of this binding for another project and then didn't use it.  Some of it finally found a home.

DONUT HOLE?

 I got all of the 'panels' done for the Skinny Strips quilt.  I put them up, stood back and took a photo.  Oh no, there appears to be a big hole in the center.

So, I moved things around.  It's better, but I need to let it rest and think about it.

I heard from Sewing Machine Service today.  They will be here this Thursday to set up my new Bernina Q24.

CHANGED A BIT

 I did move the parts around and made some lighter valued ones to fill in the gap.  I still have a few more bits to make.

TUESDAY STRIPS

 I moved the strip sets around and then made a few more.

Now, when I look back at yesterday's arrangement, I'm not so sure this is better.  I like yesterday's blank spots.  Hmmmm.

I guess I can put it back the way it was, right? 

FREESTYLE STRINGS WORKSHOP

 I attended a two-day zoom workshop by Sherri Lynn Woods this weekend.  We started out at 8am on Saturday with a talk by Tara Faughnan about color and value, mostly value.  It was a great lecture with pictures of her quilts.  What struck me was when she said, she needed to 'unlearn' balance.  I need to unlearn balance too!  I have a tendency to want to place the colors evenly around the quilt.  I need to stop that, and be content with the tension that 'unbalanced' causes.

She talked about value and it's importance.  She makes areas of light values and dark values in her quilts.  She said, black and white are the extreme ends of value and with every color in between it's value depends on what color it's next to.

Here are a few of the quilts she made using strip sets.

After Tara's talk, Sherri started the workshop where we cut strips and sewed them together.  She suggested several ways to do it - planned, where you lay the strips out and decide what order you sew them together.  Spontaneous, where you pick a strip and then another and sew it to the first and then choose another from the pile and sew it on, choosing which would be next as you go.  Then there is randomly, where you put the strips into a bag and pull them out without looking and sew them together without editing.

I prefer planning as I go.  I don't think I could do the random way.  I like to have some say in it.

We sewed strip sets on Saturday until about noon, then there was an open sew afterward.

Sunday, Sherri talked about cutting the strip sets and sewing them back together.  I didn't get to that, I was just having fun sewing strips together.  Someday I'll get around to making a quilt from them.

I started by picking five colors that spoke to me that morning and jumped into it from there.  I cut some strips and then pulled some strips from the scrap bucket that worked with them.  I was surprised at how many strips were useable.  I was able to make use of some of the long, long strips that were excess backing cut-offs from after a quilted quilt is trimmed.  I mixed prints and solids.

Here is what I had at the end of the weekend.  I don't know where it will go from here.

WILDFLOWER TWO

 Back in the studio after our morning walk (in the melting snow), I got to work on the second block for the Wildflower quilt.

Funny story - this set of blocks was strips of dark, light, dark, light, dark, light with a different color on the bottom.  The instructions, again, called for making them in a 'birthday cake' style and then trimming them down.  That is such a waste of fabric, so I thought I could do it by sewing all of the strips together, except for the bottom one, and then cutting triangles, alternating up and down from the strip set.  Then adding the last colored strip to the bottom.  While I was deciding on which fabrics to use, I thought 'wouldn't a gradation of colors look great?'.  So, I did it that way sewing all of the strips together.  Then it struck me that they'd be alternating when I cut them from the strip.  Oh well, I like it like this anyway.

Not sure which way I like it best.

85/100

Worked on my Leaf Tablerunner and a little bit on my 100dayproject2020.

Oh, the Kona Flamingo fabric I ordered has finally arrived!  I can work on the Ribbons quilt tomorrow, too.

83/100

I made a back for the Layered Curves quilt.  I found some fabrics in my stash that would work.  That's always a plus.  But, I really need to sort through my fabrics and get rid of some.  Things are way too full.

I spent some time working on my 100dayproject2020 making eight more triangle foundation blocks from my scrap bucket. 

After lunch, I started a new project for a tablerunner.  It starts with making some strip sets.

 That's all I got done on that project before I had to stop to help Darrell get the studio ready for bug bombing.  Everything had to be either removed or covered.

BIG STAR

I started making Victoria Findlay Wolfe's pattern Star Storm.

I cut out the strips today and then sorted them.  Each one gets a different number and letter. 

Then I moved them to Eduard because I'll need that table to trim the big sections and sewed up a couple of the sections.