Tag: Hunting & Gathering

Pre-Thanksgiving Work

Pre-Thanksgiving Hunting & Gathering
Pre-Thanksgiving Hunting & Gathering

I spent a lot of time Sunday through Wednesday performing Thanksgiving prep tasks. I am sure many of you did as well.

I decided 3 pies would be enough and since I planned to buy one (shocking I know), I didn’t have as much prep as in previous years. Also, many of my clients went out of town as the week progressed, so work slowed down.

In between food prep, I did some hunting and gathering. I didn’t want to pull out my cutting table (it is stored in the fabric closet when I clean up), because I knew we would need to store random furniture and stuff in my workroom on Thanksgiving. It would just get in the way. I pulled out a portable cutting mat, cutter and rulers and proceeded to cut pieces from the variety of fabric I had ironed over the past….little while. The chair where I hang my washed fabric was getting less useful as a chair.

Key to Pre-Thanksgiving Hunting & Gathering
Key to Pre-Thanksgiving Hunting & Gathering

I really got a lot done as I listened to the end of a Charles Lenox mystery and all of Paris for One by JoJo Moyes (highly recommended!).

Depending on the color, I cut different shapes. The ones shown are:

  • 2.5″ squares, because a person often needs scrappy 2.5″ squares
  • 2.5″ squares for donation quilts. I am cutting 2.5″ squares anyway, so I might as well cut two and have a variety when I make the postage stamp blocks for BAM
  • 2″ squares in blue, violet and green for my upcoming Blue Lemonade quilt.
  • 1.5″ squares for the upcoming 30 Something quilt.
  • 1.5″ squares for a friend who needs them for a scrap quilt. My fabrics are very different from hers and since there is no shortage of fabric at my house, I offered to cut and send some to her.
  • (under various squares) strips to make half hexies for the EPP piece.

What you don’t see are my 2.5″x4.5″ rectangles in blue and pink. They were acting up apparently 😉 and couldn’t be in the picture. I decided a while ago to do a colorwash, similar to the Fabric of the Year quilts, but only in blue and another in pink to see if I could do it. I am still hunting and gathering, but need to stop collecting and try to do it.

When I post my next To Do list, I will be able to say that I have made progress on the washing and cutting!

FOTY 2016 Squares Progress

FOTY 2016 Nov 2016 Squares
FOTY 2016 Nov 2016 Squares

This group looks like it would be a wonderfully cheerful baby/toddler quilt. Turquoise and pinky-red! What could be better?

It makes me want to just toss all the FOTY 2016 squares up on the wall and sew them together in a way that creates a larger cheerful quilt with this look. This tells me that I am getting tired of the project.

Don’t worry; it is a stage int he process and I will get through it. It is a good sign and perhaps I will start arranging right after New Year’s Day. We’ll see.

I looked in the box of squares yesterday and found it stuffed to the gills. I hope I don’t have to cut the squares down. I don’t want to.

FOTY 2016 Overflow

FOTY 2016 - Late June
FOTY 2016 – Late June

I mentioned the other day that I haven’t had a lot of time to sew lately. I have had a few minutes here and there, which I have used to press and cut fabric. This means more FOTY squares. There are a few from various projects as well, but the bulk of them thrown together look a little depressing. I’ll have to do a load of oranges or yellows to ensure that FOTY 2016 isn’t heavy on the dark side. 😉

FOTY 2016 – More mid-June Squares

FOTY 2016- mid-June #2
FOTY 2016- mid-June #2

These are a combination of project fabrics and new fabrics. I just keep cutting!

My Mom said that my fabrics look darker this year. I think tht may be the case because I have washed a few loads of blues and the fabrics are in the approximate order in which they were washed.

I have a lot of blues, but also a few whites and lighter colors.

FOTY 2016: Good News & Bad

FOTY 2016 Patches: Late May 2016
FOTY 2016 Patches: Late May 2016

I am plowing through fabric so more patches for FOTY 2016 are being cut. In this batch, you will see some from the back of the FOTY 2015 as well as some Ta Dots, which I am cutting into squares to make HSTs using my Triangle Technique. I thought I had all of them cut and then found a few more.

The black and whites  plus the couple of browny-neutral fabrics were originally from Cityscapes, but I am doing another quilt in similar colors. Stay tuned for more on that. There are also a couple of random purples in there. Fun to think about projects I have made or am working on when I see these patches.

The BAD NEWS is that I mislaid the box I had been using to store FOTY squares. All the squares you saw last time were in that box. I had to clean up the workroom and I remember putting the box….somewhere. Exactly where is a mystery. It is not gone forever, I know, but I just don’t know where it is. It will turn up. This is what I get for having projects in process everywhere.

FOTY 2016 Starts

FOTY 2016 Starter Patches
FOTY 2016 Starter Patches

I am going to make you crazy for a little while until I finish piecing FOTY 2015, because I have started cutting for FOTY 2016.

A few weeks ago, I started a new donation quilt with Gerre. We cut some neutrals and I had to decide ASAP what the shape and size for 2016 would be. I hadn’t finalize on a shape or size, but had been thinking about it so I just took the opportunity to make a decision. The size of the cut FOTY squares (yes, only squares this year) will be 4×4″. Finished size will be 3.5×3.5″.

 

FOTY 2016 Patches - mid May
FOTY 2016 Patches – mid May

I had the few neutrals and one or two blues on the wall and then over the weekend the squares exploded as I cut the centers for the Food quilt and then even more when I cut the blacks.

All of these are old fabrics – well, fabrics that have been in my stash awhile. A few of them had nothing cut out of them so I know they were pre-2008 fabrics. I am not going to differentiate new vs existing fabrics this year even though I really like that look.

I made a good dent with all of this cutting and was able to move some yardage off shelves and into bins after all of this cutting.

Peacocks Moving Forward

Peacock Panel
Peacock Panel

The picture (left) looks like the others I posted, but it is an actual panel that showed up at my house.

I received the panels for the Peacock One Block Wonder. I know I said last time that I bought the panels from Miller’s Dry Goods and I was waiting for them. They came quickly and I am ready to wash and start the project. I have to clear up some others first.

I saw a number of One Block Wonders at the Fair last weekend. In the midst of life, I volunteered (it was too much effort to try and get a replacement and nothing family oriented was happening, so I went) to sell tickets for the BAMQG Opportunity quilt at the Fair. It got me in for free, so I had a half an hour of quilt viewing as well.

Anyway, I saw a number of One Block Wonders at the Fair and was slightly horrified at what I had gotten myself into. I didn’t like what they had done, mostly, which made me question myself. I had to reel myself in and remind myself of Pam’s version and stay the course.

It just occurred to me that I am pushing my comfort level with this project which is what all the back and forth and drama is about.

 

Blue Lemonade Squares

Squares from TFQ
Squares from TFQ

I am a cheap date.

These squares arrived in the mail for me last week and I felt like a kid at Christmas. It was so fun to receive an unexpected batch of fabric. I really had a good time looking through them and imagining their placement in the Blue Lemonade quilt.

I have made good progress lately on Hunting & Gathering. Between these, the ones Mom cut for me and the squares I have cut for myself lately, there is a nice little pile accumulating.

I am still definitely in the Hunting & Gathering stage. I will be until I, at least, figure out how many patches I need. I do think this quilt will definitely happen.

I think I have 3 blue quilts in process and I wonder if I will get sick of them before the last one is finished?

 

Blue Lemonade Gathering

Some time ago I wrote about TFQ’s cool quilt, Pink Lemonade.

I have washed a lot of blues lately, so my version (future) has been on my mind. Mom came over the other day and on a whim I asked her if she would use my Accuquilt to cut blue squares for me from my scrap basket. The scrap basket over floweth, as they say.

Blue Lemonade Hunting & Gathering
Blue Lemonade Hunting & Gathering

She said yes, which netted me a bunch of blue squares. I am much farther along that I was, though I still have a long way to go.

As I was organizing them, I wondered about just sewing them randomly or trying to organize them like I do with the the Fabric of the Year quilts. I have to admit that it doesn’t sound very appealing. It sounds like a boring slog.

In TFQ’s version, it looks like she sewed the fabrics together sort of randomly, though I am sure there was a method to the madness. I definitely do not see a gradation.

FOTY 2014 – Early May

FOTY 2014 - early May
FOTY 2014 – early May

Lately I have been plowing through a lot of washed fabric. Most of it is blues and greens, which is good for my Blue[berry] Lemonade project and means that the FOTY 2014 will have a lot of blues and greens like the previous versions in the series.

I am a little more excited about cutting for FOTY 2014 now that FOTY 2012 is done. I am really pleased with how FOTY 2012 came out and now I am hoping future versions come out even better.

FOTY 2013? Yes, I will get to it soon.

FOTY 2014 – More Progress

FOTY 2014 - April 2014 #2
FOTY 2014 – April 2014 #2

I have a couple of projects in mind that require blues, so I have been washing and pressing blues, greens and light purples/violets lately. This is a nice little collection that I am really looking forward to using. I have already cut some pieces for projects that are still in the Hunting & Gathering stage.

I found a sense of peace and not frustration when I was cutting these pieces. It is satisfying to see a little pile of cut patches grow. That was a nice change.

Fabric of the Year 2014

FOTY 2014 - First Patches
FOTY 2014 – First Patches

This has never happened before. FOTY 2013 has not even had its chance on the design wall and I am already cutting for FOTY 2014. That is, apparently, the way it goes sometimes.

I like this group, though the greys are a bit of a downer, and think that many of the prints would be considered very modern.

The FOTY 2014 patches are cut 3″x5″. The reason for this size is that I have been trying to achieve a certain size of rectangle in a couple of projects (one was FOTY 2008) . I kept forgetting to factor in the seam allowance, so the rectangles, once sewn, were too small. They worked fine in the quilt, but the look was a little small for what I wanted.

This slightly larger size will also showcase more of the pattern on the fabric.

Dots and Pearls

Dots Option
Dots Option

Last year, TFQ gave me a bundle of dots for my birthday. Since then they have been sitting on my cutting table waiting for inspiration to strike. I didn’t want to use them alone in a quilt, because I thought it would be too boring (dots, boring? I know, but my mind works in mysterious ways sometimes).

Tone-on-tone Pearl Bracelets
Tone-on-tone Pearl Bracelets

Recently, I saw some of the tone-on-tone Pearl Bracelets (great imagery in that name, don’t you think?) and these dots came around again in my thoughts. I am wondering if I could use the two of the groups together in something interesting?

What? I don’t know yet.

What about all of those other projects?

I know. I need to focus. It is just a thought and I can’t do anything about it until I come up with a better plan, such as a pattern.

Fabric of the Year 2013-Last Squares

FOTY 2013 - March Update
FOTY 2013 – March Update

It has taken longer this year to get to this point. I didn’t have the Retreat as a firm deadline. I decided that I had to create a deadline and few pieces of fabric I had washed, but not pressed provided the deadline. As soon as I took care of those, I closed the collection.

I haven’t sorted the squares, but I have an idea of how I will sew them. I think I need to finish a couple of projects before I start sewing this one. That doesn’t mean that I will put it off forever, but I have to clear my mind so I can spend time on arranging the squares.