Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Sew Outta Here

I can't believe another BostonMQG retreat has come and gone!  After 8 years I've learned that cutting on retreat is a bad plan.  I am much better at just sewing or quilting.  That said, I may have gone a bit overboard with the retreat prep...  I started with my March Shimmer Block-a-Long blocks and then dug back in to my Liberty stack for a quilt I've been meaning to make for ages.  That probably would have been enough but with too much energy on a snowy day I started picking fabrics for zipper bags.  Of course you can't make just one and I kept finding fabric combos I loved so somehow I ended up with six.

I started with the zipper bags as a warm-up.  I only got two done before I got bored making them but it was a nice low pressure way to start things off between conversations and cocktails.

The next day I got right to work on my top priority, my March Shimmer blocks.  These aren't hard but they are a bit more fiddly than I anticipated and it took me most of the day to make all four.

Of course that may have been because I spent way too much time socializing and then there was that horrible moment when I realized I was missing 1 square.  Fortunately I also had my prepped April blocks so I could swap.

With those out of the way, I did my guild duty and paper pieced this cute block for this year's charity quilt.  I love how this one is going to come together, I may have to steal this idea for myself!

Finally with all my "obligation" sewing out of the way I let myself start something new.  I'm so in love with this combination of Kaffe Fassett smoky shot cotton with Liberty Tana Lawns from the Westwood Acres bundle of the month club.  10 hearts down and only 30 left to go but for now it's back to reality.




Friday, March 8, 2019

Chasing Away the Winter Blues

alidiza: Chasing Away the Winter Blues
Finally, a Friday finish!!!

The great thing about winter is it certainly inspires me to hole up in my studio and make stuff!  I'd started making these Broken Dishes blocks with scraps from my Blue Plate Special Dresden quilt at last year's Boston MQG retreat.  Everything was already prepped so on one of our frigid January days where I couldn't think of anything else to do I grabbed the stack and finished these up.

There are a ton of layouts for these blocks but I fell in love with this one by Hyacinth Quilt Designs .  It's a perfect layout for a table runner.  After a mindless day of sewing blocks together I got this one basted and ready to quilt.

The perfect opportunity to quilt this came when we took off for a sewing weekend in Maine.  Straight line quilting is so much easier when you have this view.

alidiza: Chasing Away the Winter Blues
I kept it simple but I think the straight lines really add to the whole effect.

Another snow day and I was able to tack the binding.

alidiza: Chasing Away the Winter Blues
Just the thing to chase away the winter blues!

Quilt Stats:
Finished table runner is 33"x87"
Fabrics: Quilts for a Cure Fine China Blue collection by Bonnie Benn Stratton for Northcott.  Essex Linen - White.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Thread: Aurifil in  Natural White (2021).