Welcome to my day on the Celebrations Paper Piecing Blog Hop with Island Batik Ambassadors.
Have you been inspired, and have you been entering to win the fabric collections and other blog prizes? It's been a great hop!
My collection is Snowed In. It's a perfect assortment of blues, starting on white and going to dark navy. There are wonderful designs including deer, snowflakes, trees and pine boughs. I received the 1/2 yard bundle, with 2 yards of the dark and light fabrics, in the surprise bundle in January's Ambassador box.
The colors and tjaps (chops) are perfect, and so ME!! I love blues, maybe not as much as purples, but snow theme are also a favorite. I love winter! My curly hair loves winter, too. lol.
I wanted to do another Quiltworx pattern, and picked Summer Solstice because it would work with the 1/2 yard bundle, and they showed versions in blue and white. It's supposed to measure 60" square, and I do have some of the dark Prancing Deer print, so may add an additional border. Unfortunately, the quilt is not finished yet, but I hope it will be by Friday, so I can share a top for the recap post.
Quiltworx has great patterns. They are well written and the foundation designs are great, and printed on newsprint. One of my favorite features is the template for cutting the shapes.
This is for the background of the small section of the NY Beauty blocks. One of my issues is not knowing how large to cut a piece of fabric to cover the paper once it's sewn. Judy has thought of that. Some of the pieces for the larger NY Beauty section could have been a little smaller, but the template allows the pieces to be assembled with the grain going in the correct direction for the block. Very smart!
So, Summer Solstice is now Winter Solstice. Winter is a great season to celebrate, but Winter Solstice marks the beginning of longer days. It's also right before Christmas, and a blue and white snowy quilt for the holiday season is always a welcoming and cheerful sight.
As most quilters know, the time you plan to get something done is never enough. Life seems to get in the way, and Spring allergies have hit, so the time I was hoping to sew has not been as productive. My sewing machine had an incident, too, so this was started on my back-up, Janome 5300. It did really well, and I was thrilled it has the same clear foot with the red arrow to mark the needle position. It's my favorite for sewing on the lines. My Janome Horizon 9450 enjoyed the spa days at Pocono Sew & Vac, though, and I'm thrilled with how it's been working.
Some progress shots.
The center Lone Star starts with strips, and my Oliso iron does a great job of getting the seams flat. It's also been great for pressing sections as I go. Nice, hot, and flat units, especially with the clapper my friend made for me.
The 5300 is pretty, and yes, I got the purple version (Grape), and it has a knee lift, which makes it easy to get pieces under the foot, or pivot when needed. Here's I'm working on the star sections, and the magnifier, included, and the clear foot with red arrow are so helpful. As always, I'm using Aurifil 50wt to piece, and a new Schmetz Micortex Chrome needle.
8 large star diamond sections later.
I've done Lone Star quilts before, so this was a different way to assemble. The others were strip pieced, cut and sewn again. These were foundation pieced. The strips were sewn to paper, the paper had lines to cut the rows, and they were then sewn together. Both are fun!
Next section was the NY Beauty blocks.
I'm working on the 9450 again. I love the faster speed and larger throat space. The 16 smaller sections are the same, but the larger ones are 8 left and 8 right, and the quilt top does NOT have Y seams because of this design element. I used Island Batik White Solid for the background here. I was saving the white snow and swirl fabric for the next section, where the design would show more.
I'm working on Part C. This includes a pieced diagonal border, an inner frame border, and the background. I've never done a quilt that had the medallion go into the border before, so there are 4 pieced sections to each 1/4 of the quilt, and those get joined to the background, which joins to the NY Beauty and then the Star diamonds. I have 1/8th actually done to that point.
The dark blue next to the white is the back of a quilt on the bed. The bottom left is actually the Island Batik section that's finished (Okay, I do plan to adjust the joining seam so the dark frame border has a better match). I think it's going to be gorgeous.
Tuesday progress update! 1/4th done!
I'll share updated photos soon. The link to all the other blogs is below. Please check them all out! Look for Snowed In and all the new collections in your favorite shops soon. If you don't see them, ask them to get it for you!
WEEK 1
May 6:
May 7:
May 8:
May 9:
May 10:
Blog Hop Round-Up Week 1 and Giveaway
WEEK 2
May 13:
May 14:
May 15:
May 16:
May 17:
Blog Hop Round-Up Week 2 and Giveaway
WEEK 3
May 20:
May 21:
May 22:
May 23:
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