Starting to Piece Month 4

As promised, I got a decent start on the Month 4 piecing for Sedona Star yesterday.  It is pretty painstaking work!  Yesterday morning I checked the Show & Tell section at The Quilt Show to see how people are doing with Month 4.  Only one person was finished!  So I had a feeling this month would be trickier.  Usually there would be four or five people done after the first week.  But maybe enthusiasm wanes after the first couple of months too.

My modifications to the template went smoothly, and they didn't seem to add to the difficulty at all:

You can see that I drew in the 1/4 inch shadow on all the templates.  I used 1/8 seam allowances on all the internal seams, which turned out to be no problem at all.  Even though the darker orange pieces would finish small, I still cut the fabric 1 1/2 inch wide so I would have somewhere to put the pins.  You can see that I have also been staystitching the side seams, which gives me one less thing to worry about with the assembly.

The assembly of the sub-units is definitely the biggest challenge:

By the end of the day I had sewn together seven, and I had to redo a seam twice.  Because joining the units is the trickiest part, I am forcing myself to add each unit to the whole as I go.  That way I will not be stuck with the worst part at the end.

You probably realize that I have skipped over Month 3.  I am looking forward to going back to it, because I think it will be a doddle compared to Month 4!  It is fun to see how the designer Sarah Vedeler is increasing the challenge each month.  We will all be Mariner's Compass masters after this!

Overall, I am very happy with how it is going.  It is becoming clear that once again The Quilt Show BOM is going to be impressive.  When you see how all the details keep building month after month, it becomes a very satisfying thing.  Onwards and upwards!

Happy Easter!

I think Easter is my favourite holiday.  It's not just the chocolate, either!  Although that doesn't hurt. ;)  I love all the spring colours and spring flowers, and it's a gorgeous sunny day too.  It's such a hopeful time of year.

This amazing chocolate egg was bought for us by my sister at Chocolate Barr's Candies in Stratford, Ontario.  And look what was on the inside:

Caramels, maple creams and solid bunnies and chicks, all in premium dark chocolate.  I'm not sure I have room for lunch!

Otherwise, I've been extremely productive so far this holiday weekend.  I cut all the fabric for Months 2, 3 and 4 of Sedona Star, and copied all the templates onto the Ricky Tims Stable Stuff - one sheet at a time!  This afternoon my plan is to try my "shadow" idea for Month 4.  One way or another, I'll have some photos of that tomorrow. 

In the mean time, I hope you have a great day too.

Free-Form Quilts

For Book Review Day I've just been reviewing my order history at Amazon.ca to remind myself what books I've bought recently.  Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts, by Rayna Gillman (C&T Publishing, 2011), has been on the shelf, not because I don't like it, but because I don't have time for it now.  But that doesn't mean it isn't a fun book!

I am feeling these days like I still have a lot to explore with traditional quilting.  However, when I am ready to branch out, this is one technique that I will definitely try.  Gillman's technique basically involves sewing together lots of strips into blocks, cross cutting the blocks and inserting more strips, and arranging the lot on your design wall until it looks good.  I think it would be tons of fun!  It actually reminds me of string quilts.

To me, the best thing about Gillman's presentation is that she is very encouraging, and breaks the process down into easy steps.  I think this would be a great book for people who want to do art quilts but who don't think they are artistic.  It is hard to go wrong with this technique.

A large part of the book is about exploration, and trying different things to see what you like.  There are no patterns, and the goal is not to duplicate Gillman's quilts.  Gillman gives you so many variations on the basic approach that even just looking at the pictures gives you a chance to consider what you like, and the colour combinations that look good to you.  My belief is that once you start talking about art instead of strictly design, our own personal reactions become the most important thing, rather than any "rules" about colour or design.

Of course, it is also more likely that not everyone will agree with your preferences!  ;)

Gillman started her quilting life as a traditional quilter, and the book has an idea-filled chapter about what to do with your old UFOs:

You can probably already see where she is going with that.  One good idea is to just cut out the seams of your UFOs, and reclaim the smaller bits of fabric, without having to unpick anything.

So, while for me this book is on the shelf for now, if you are feeling stale or artistically blocked at all, this is a great book to break you out of it.  Or, if you tend to be results-oriented, this book will definitely put more fun into your process.  For me, having fun is the most important part!