Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
Yes, after YEARS this quilt is finally finished. I love finishing quilts. I love working on them, too, in case you hadn’t noticed, but finishing a quilt is awesome as well. I am pleased with how this one came out.
It is a great pattern and I would encourage you to try it out.
Sunday was a nice day. It was Mother’s Day and, though nobody in my house said anything specifically, I did whatever I wanted and didn’t have to do too many chores. I received a depressing, if very true card and an iTunes gift card from the Young Man and then spent the rest of the day finishing the Flowering Snowball. Not finishing as in quilted and bound, but finishing the top and the back.
So, the top, back and binding for the Flowering Snowball are all done and will be sent off to the quilter soon.
I am pretty pleased with the top. Since the project spanned several years, some of the fabrics are fabrics that I would not choose to work with now. Also, since I wanted this to be a scrap quilt, I should have stuck to using each foreground fabric only once.
Still, none of the fabrics jump out and demand attention and the variety of fabrics is significant, so there is a lot to look at.
Of course, I can think of things I would do differently if I did the quilt again and the VIMH#1 is musing about making one on the machine and color schemes while VIMH#2 is getting ready to slap her. I have plenty of projects on the design wall that need attention before I can circle back and make another one of these.
I have to admit that after I started chunking the top, I thought that I could have made more blocks so that the center would be wider. I was thinking that two more rows of blocks down the center would be great. I am not doing it. What I have is enough and I will think about this as a lesson and carry it forward.
I am doing backs in a little different way now. I decided that the large Philip Jacobs and Martha Negley prints I love so much would be great backs. I am taking some of the giant pieces I bought recently and putting them on the backs. I am still committed to piecing my backs, but am taking a break from tiny pieces. I am trying to use larger pieces. This makes making the backs much faster to piece. It also means that those large prints are shown off to their best advantage.
In this case, I tried to pick fabrics that went with the Martha Negley print and, further, with each other. I ended up with a very pink back.
the librarian in me has to tell you that I called the pattern “Cross Blocks” until I found that Barbara Brackman had cataloged it. In EQ7, the notecard lists it as “Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Quilt Patterns #3081 – Aunt Kate 7/65.” It is from the Classic Pieced, Orange Peel family.
The Sunday Stash Report (a la Pam at Hip to be a Square podcast) is 8 yards. More on that later.
I can’t believe that this approximately 6 year project is finally done. this means that I am down to 20 projects which need serious work. Some of the 6 are still at the quilter or need to be bound, but I consider this to be good progress.
I don’t know what project is next. I’ll have to work on the Flower Sugar Hexagons again just to get some more of them sewn and added. I also have some blocks to make for the A-B-C Challenge.
Nota bene: the WordPress media uploader has not cooperating. I have been having trouble with it for the past few days so I added the photo of the top, but it is large. If I can make it smaller, I will.
I thought I would work on the Corner Store as my next project. It was calling to me during the dark time while I pieced the Renewed Jelly Roll Race. As soon as I turned my attention to it, it held no interest for me.
I worked a bit on the Garden, as I mentioned, but floundered a bit on Saturday. I made a couple of QuiltCon blocks, did a bit of piecing on the Swoon #6, but finally took myself in hand on Saturday night and planned out my Sunday.
On Sunday, I worked pretty steadily on the Flowering Snowball. Aside from some math issues, e.g. not being able to count, the process went pretty well. I had little to no trouble putting the hand pieced blocks together by machine. I do need a few more blocks, so I can’t finish the chunking until those are pieced. If all goes well, and I have counted properly, I should have them done by the end of next week. We’ll see. Don’t hold your breath.
I feel like doing another version of this pattern by machine with pink or aqua background. It has to wait, though, until many other projects are completed.
My camera seems to be taking fuzzy photos. I wonder what that is about?
I am progressing well on the Flowering Snowball. I seem to be able to sew about a block a night. These are hand pieced, which is why they take so long.
I am trying to decide how to put the blocks together – by machine or by hand. I am thinking that I will put them together by hand and then go over them by machine. I am hemming and hawing because the hand stitching isn’t as precise in terms of seam allowance, so I have to sew on a line rather than lining up the seam allowance. I’ll try it out and see how it goes.
I am pleased with the progression and glad I took it up again. I am really liking the way the side and corner blocks look. Another good example of self bordering success.
Yes, I am working on the Flowering Snowball. It is a hand project (as I designed it to be) and I work on it when I watch TV.
I did a lot of cutting a few weeks ago, as I mentioned and the result is that I am putting segments together until there are none left and then putting other segments together until I can start sewing blocks together. At the moment I am working on sewing a foreground piece (the printed, colored fabric), which has been joined with a black on white piece to a different foreground piece that has been attached to a small black square.
So far, I have done three. When I looked at them the word ‘florets’ came to mind. Yes, like broccoli, but not broccoli. Nicer than broccoli-not that there is any thing wrong with broccoli, but fabric is much better. So I am calling these joined segments florets.
One of the things about this method is that I put all the squares together at once. I sew the same segments to each other until all of the blocks are done and then I move to the next segment. When I start finishing the blocks, they will be done quickly.
Last Sunday night, I went over and watched a movie with my SIL. We often craft together and this night was no exception. We watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat and stitched. I was able to finish the last middle block of the Flowering Snowball/Cross Block project.
Now I need to worry about the border blocks. I haven’t taken the time to make the pattern for those. I will soon.
This is the second to last Flowering Snowball center block. I brought my handwork bag with me to the meeting yesterday and put this together while we worked on the business of the organization. It is something I can do while I listen and participate. I feel productive on my fabric projects, which is a good thing.
I also started work on the last block, but didn’t get very far before the ATC swap started.
This morning I was facing the reality of this project. I get to start the border VERY shortly. I think I opened the project in EQ6 in recent memory, however I don’t remember looking at the templates or doing any work on them. I need to get on that.
The other issue I am facing is squaring up the center blocks. I discussed this here before and think that I will have to trim the blocks after machine sewing around before I trim. Otherwise I think that they may come apart.
The problem is that if I trim them before I make the border, the border won’t fit. Glad I thought of it before I made the border!
As promised, here is an up to date picture of the Flowering Snowball (Cross Blocks). I found myself short of backgrounds the other day when I had the perfect opportunity to hand stitch.
I laid it out in order to see what background fabrics I should cut. I don’t want to have too many of the same fabrics. I want it to look scrappy.
As you can see I have 3 more blocks for the middle section before I start on the outside. I need to make the pattern pieces for the outside, too. I thought of combining the pieces that will become background, but I may just leave them as individuals, so that I can use a variety of fabrics. The former method means the rest of the project will progress much more quickly. The latter means that I won’t have to figure out a new piecing order.
I sat and watched Wall-E the other night, which provided a good opportunity to spend some time finishing this block. I am only a few away from needing to start the border.
It is one of the blocks influenced by The Child’s comment that the blocks were pretty chaotic. I think the tone-on-tones look good with the prints. I will lay them out and take a photo soon.
I am still working on the Flowering Snowballs (Cross Blocks). As you can see, I have taken the Child’s advice and added in some visual resting places for the last 10 blocks.
As I have mentioned on numerous occasions, these are hand pieced. I intend to sew them together by machine. However, in the cutting process, they do not all turn out to have uniform edges. I have been wondering if they would come apart if I trimmed them with a square ruler and then sewed them all together?
The knots I have made to hold the pieces securely would be trimmed off. Would it matter how quickly I sewed after trimming? The machine piecing would definitely hold all of the blocks together. More pondering….
Here is the latest update to the Flowering Snowball (Cross Blocks).
As I have mentioned, I am nearing the end of the project. I am not sure what the end actually is, but am thinking that it is 10 more of the middle blocks and then a round of border blocks. I haven’t designed the border blocks, but will design them to complete the colored areas with the rest being white. I was also thinking of a black border. I need to play around with what I am thinking because it is much easier to show a photo/image than explain.
Here is a detail.
The Child came in and joined me while I was looking at the blocks. He said that it looks too chaotic and I need to put some solids in it. HUH???
I do think he is right. I don’t know if I will use tone-on-tones or something like low contrast batiks, but I think I need to add some resting spots for the viewers eyes. I will try it out and see what I come up with.
While driving around Virginia checking out quilt shops, I worked on some Flowering Snowball blocks in the car. I was amazed at how much I was able to get done. I know two blocks doesn’t seem like a lot, but since these are handpieced, this represents quite a bit of work.
I also began thinking about the border blocks. Nothing definite yet, but I think I am nearing the end of this project. Stay tuned.
As an added bonus, I finished one Flowering Snowball (Cross Block) last week. I particularly like this one, because it has the coffee print. I think I am close to the end of piecing these blocks. I want to do a self border so I have to make those blocks. It is just a feeling, so we’ll see how it progresses.
Normally, I like to give my posts their day in the sun – the one time in their life when you will see them and only them first.
Today isn’t one of those kind of days.
A few days ago, I was lamenting the fact that I hadn’t been doing anything sewing related lately except thinking. When I realized that I had been working on the Cross Blocks (Flowering Snowballs) on and off, but pretty regularly for about three weeks or so, I was thrilled and had to show you. I have some work done! Hooray!
Some time ago, I spent a couple of hours cutting a bunch of patches to have handy when I had time to make blocks. The above five blocks are the result of that exercise as well as the actual sewing that I have done during the past few weeks. It pays to plan ahead, I think.
Some of the fabrics I wouldn’t use again, because they are too dark or too blah, but I think they will mix in well in the end.
Since 5 blocks is an odd shape, I took a close up of these four so you could see the circle (of which I am very proud). I also wanted you to have the opportunity to enjoy some of the fun and fabulous fabrics: the kitchen fabric in the middle (upper right block, yellow) as well as the lamp fabric (upper right block, blue). Normally, I don’t use these in the types of quilts I make, but this project is perfect for some of those conversationals that I like and never use.
I have a total of 33 blocks. I could stop at 36 and make a 6 block by 6 block quilt. I would like to have this piecing see me through my summer travels.
I also want to do the self bordering technique on this project so that the quilt looks finished. I will have to make a round of blocks for the outside. That idea worked so well with the Pineapples, I will have to really think about how I can do it successfully. If I make the center too big, the border will be too daunting.
Clevelandgirlie asked me about the Cross Block/Flowering Snowball and I looked through the blog to see if I could point her to the original quilt that inspired this project. The original post was on October 20, 2006. I guess that is the official project start date?
Definitely different coloration than mine. Definitely different. I don’t remember where I saw this quilt, so I don’t remember anything about it (hand pieced vs. machine pieced, hand quilted vs. machine quilted), but I still like it and am thrilled with the inspiration as well as the interest that people are taking in the project.