From This Valley

I finished my Luxe in Bloom Churn Dash! I really like this quilt. I love the colors, the busy-ness, and the prints that you wouldn't think work together, but go together perfectly.

I've decided to name this quilt From This Valley, which is a song by the Civil Wars. This song is one of my favorites. It's also a very significant song for me - it was on repeat for months after my Mom died.

For this quilt I used almost all the prints from Luxe in Bloom by Sarah Watson, and it is pieced in Aurifil 2024. It finishes 80x72. The design is my own, using traditional churn dash blocks.

WIP-ness

Do you remember the EPP project I started at the beach? Well, I promise I've been working on it... I just had to set it aside for a moment out of frustration. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this:

Hand piecing and seam rippers together do not a happy Meg make... I need to pay better attention next time!

BUT! The sad part is over, so now I'm back on the right track.

Here is what else I've been working on - I'm officially a grad student (again...) So my sewing might slow down a bit. Hopefully not too much, I've actually finished the Luxe in Bloom top, so I'll show that to you tomorrow!




What have you been up to?

Easy-Peasy 9 Patch

I've said before that I've never actually taken a piecing class, and that I'm self-taught. So basically, I have no idea how everyone else does this, but I wanted to share with you how I do my 9-patch blocks.

I've used this technique with Georgia on My Mind, as well as my current WIP, the Luxe in Bloom churn dash.

Start with your 9 squares, and lay them out how you want them in the final block.

Lay the middle column on top of the first column, right sides together, and chain piece per usual. DO NOT cut these pieces apart!

Open your top pair of squares, and put the top square of the third column on the middle column square, and chain piece that last column onto the first two.

Just keep it goin'...

Then you're left with a half-finished block that you can toss around and not worry about the pieces getting mixed up. I do it like this so I can do a mess-load of blocks together, assembly-line style!

Toss them in a pile together, no worries!

Once you've pieced a mess-load of blocks (I usually do ten or so at a time) then you can press the seams in alternating directions.

These are all pressed and folded into thirds, ready for the last two seams!

Nest the seams, don't worry about clipping the threads from the chain piecing, and finish the block.

All done! When I'm on a roll with these, I can typically do ten-ish in about two hours.

Does anyone (or everyone?) else do it like this? I really have no idea if this is helpful or not, and I'm sure it's not groundbreaking or anything. What do you think?

Ready to Piece!

I finished my Luxe in Bloom blocks the other day, and couldn't wait to put them up on the design wall to see what the finished quilt will look like. I've rearranged them quite a bit since then, so I'm going to wait to show you until I figure out how I like it.

In the meantime, enjoy these! (The colors in these pictures are waaaaay off. I took them in the middle of the night! Yay artificial lighting!)

Gruntwork

There are always parts of quilting/specific projects that are not a favorite. I've mentioned before that pressing is not something I particularly love, but there is definitely something waaaaaaaay worse.

Trimming HSTs.

I hate it. I dread it. I've tried different methods, different rulers, etc, but the bottom line is that it has to get done one way or the other. No shortcuts. Just get it done, preferably in small batches.

At least the finished product is worth it!

Luxe in Bloom Progress!

I've actually made a lot of progress on Luxe in Bloom, but since the last couple posts were not project-related, I'll give you some pretty pictures of my block-prep method that I used to get ready to piece these puppies.

I cut all my fabric at once, to make sure that 1) I had enough, and 2) that when I put the blocks together I'd be able to distribute the colors/prints/values evenly.

After everything was cut, I spread out all of the cut pieces and used my tried-and-true paper plates to organize the blocks.

Ready to stitch!

Studio Spotlight Link-Up!

So I've shown you guys my studio before (soon after I moved into my house a year and a half ago), but since Jennifer at Ellison Lane and Heather at the Sewing Loft have been doing their Studio Spotlight series, I figured now would be a good time to revisit my space!

Here is the view as you walk in the door. I love being able to see my stash first thing as I come up the stairs! The table is a cheap folding banquet table from Target that I've put up on bed risers I had left over from college. So now the table's now at counter height, which is much better for my back!

There are a couple of WIPs on the floor under the table, and some cubbies for scrappy bits and whatnot.

My double wedding ring FMQ sampler got hung on the wall, and I honestly think it's the first thing that got hung up after I moved in! The cabinet the TV is on is one I got for free from a friend from school, and there are more drawers behind the doors.

Bridget (my new machine) is sitting on an old kitchen table I moved up here when I got my "real" dining table set. I'd love a drop-in table one day, because 1) the machine bed is a little high for comfort right now, and 2) my quilts are constantly getting caught on the extension table when I'm quilting, which is a pain. Those tables are a pretty big investment though, so that might take a fair amount of planning. I've had a carpenter friend of mine come to see if he could cut out a hole and sort of make this table a drop in, but it would have involved cutting out the front support, since this machine is a front-load bobbin. Oh well.

To the right of the sewing machine, directly across from the cutting table, is my design wall. (Upon which you can see a sneak peek of my current project!) This thing is seriously the easiest, cheapest, and most valuable addition to any sewing room! I just hung some clear command strips across the wall, and hung up some batting with binder clips. So easy. It seriously took all of ten minutes. And that included measuring and marking a level line on the wall, and cutting the batting to size. I actually just added some more command strips above the closet for when I run out of space on the "main" design wall.

Underneath the design wall I have my scrap bins, organized by color. I'm thinking about reorganizing them by size, though, because I think finding useful pieces might be easier that way. I'll keep you posted if I start playing... On top of the cubbies I've got some jars of selvedges and my pins for basting.

To the left of the cutting table and stash are my pressing table, notions wall, and my Tears wall quilt. Love it all. (except the orange wall. it came like that.)


I hope you guys enjoyed the little tour! I love my space, and that's a good thing, since I spend so much time there! What are your favorite things about your sewing spaces? What would you like to change?

Stash Share

I'm jumping on Sarah's bandwagon and sharing my stash. 

I love it. I love that it's the first thing I see as I walk up the stairs. I love that I can look at it and see so much potential.

I really just like looking at it, period.

My stash-building has evolved over the past several years, but here are the basic ideas:

~ I buy a lot of one or two-color "basic" prints, that can be mixed with anything and everything. That is basically how Sunshine Daydream came about. That was a stash-only quilt, and I'm very proud of that!

~ I used to buy mostly fat quarters, but as I've grown as a quilter and can better evaluate a print's versatility, now I mostly buy half yards. There are also some that I buy yardage of because I know it's something I love that I can use often. I still buy fat quarters of prints that are niche-y, or that I'm not sure I'll use more than once or twice. That's very occasional. Most of my fat quarter stash come from leftover halves.

~ Collections: I actually really like sewing with collections, which is not necessarily a popular opinion with quilters. But I feel if a collection is well designed and well curated, it deserves to be showcased. (See Honey Honey and Luxe in Bloom) ((also, Honey Honey is one of the few quilts I've made following a pattern, as well!))

I used to organize my 1-yard and up fabric on mini-bolts, but I discovered that I could fit a whole lot more on my shelf with just plain old-fashioned folding. I do use uniform folding techniques to make everything fit together and look neat. I don't like messes. I'm a nerd like that.

On top of the shelf are bolts of fabric that are ~3+ yards, as well as some of my older quilts. And I think some batting leftovers.

The top shelf holds cuts that are about 1-2 yards. I need to beef up my yellows, they've been looking kind of sad since I finished Sunshine Daydream. Yellow is harder to come by than one would think! I also have my color cards up there for quick reference.

The second shelf has some fat quarters, as well as some collections that I have yardage of. There is also the backing fabric for Honey Honey waiting to be pieced as well.

The third shelf has more collections, as well as pulls for future projects, precuts, and some of the solids. The next has bins that are holding pulls for current projects, like the BOMs I'm in this year. There is also a stack of home dec fabrics there as well.

This little shelf holds the bulk of my blenders and whatnot, organized by color. There are also some low volumes there at the bottom, and my faves, gray, at the top.

So that's it, for the most part! I have a bunch more in the cabinet on the other side of the studio, but those are mostly bits and pieces left over from early in my quilting days, before I got more of a handle on my 'style'. Now those are practice bits and whatnot.

So how does your stash look? Are there gaping holes, like my yellows?

Luxe in Bloom

As I mentioned yesterday, I've started a new quilt. This one came sort of out of the blue, and jumped the queue of several others that have been waiting in the wings for awhile.

I love Luxe in Bloom. I think it's one of my favorite lines in a long time. I love how you can look at these prints individually and it seems like they don't relate at all, but they work so perfectly together. I've used this line several times when making bags and have used some of the blender-y prints in Sunshine Daydream and Georgia on My Mind.

So. I wanted to take this line and make a conglomeration-of-color type quilt, kind of clashy and busy. I sat down with my sketchbook and a calculator and did math. Lots of math. And then some more math. And then I would correct that math, and then do some more. I'm not so good at the math...

After double and triple checking, I did a couple of 'prototype' blocks. They worked! So exciting :-)

I've actually gotten a lot done on this quilt, and I'll be sharing more soon, obvs. I also noticed that a few days after I started, churn dash blocks are showing up everywhere in blogland! Crazy how we think alike...

An Update

I just wanted to let you guys know why I've been MIA... you remember the quilt I made for my grandmother, Georgia On My Mind?

Well, exactly one week after giving it to her, she passed away. This has been a pretty tough time for me, she and I were very close, and I'm even named after her. Since my Mom's passing last year, my grandmother had been fulfilling some of those 'maternal' voids for me. Having another loss so soon after losing my Mom has been really hard. It sucks, really. Your prayers are appreciated.

BUT. Sewing is my coping mechanism, and I've been doing some of that. I've started a new quilt out of my long-hoarded stash of Luxe in Bloom, so I'll share some of that later this week.