Tuesday, May 15, 2018

On My Sewing Table

I currently have four WIPs going right now. I don’t mean I have three stacked neatly up and one at my sewing table. I mean I have four going simultaneously, strewn about my dining room and cluttering an 8-foot table. I’ve been picking up a different one when I need a change or run out of fabric. (So far I’ve run out of a Kona solid and a shade of Grunge. In other words, I have a legit reason to step foot in a quilt shop in the very near future!)

One of these projects is from Kelly Young’s new book, Stash Statement. I’m pretty excited about this quilt. It’s a departure from other projects of mine because of both its palette and its construction.

The Palette

I’ve had a stack of fabrics from Lizzy House’s Whisper Palette in my stash for a year or two. I love these fabrics and the cool grays in them, but most of my projects call for warmer grays, and I’ve struggled to include these low-volume fabrics in projects at hand. The solution, it turns out, was to let the cool grays dictate the palette of an entire quilt.

You can see some of these prints—specifically, the flags, mice, and constellations—in the pictures below. I paired them with other grays from my stash, some pale periwinkles, and some prints from Kate Spain’s Aria collection. (I sewed with Aria here, too.)

These fabrics in different, (mostly) muted colors compose the background for the blocks in Kelly’s Bloom Chicka Boom pattern.




The Construction

Those background fabrics have been sewn together into panels and then cut into the necessary sizes for the pattern. I’ve heard my guildmates call this “made fabric,” and it’s the technique that Kelly employs throughout her book.

I tried my hand at sewing made fabric before, in this quilt, without success. The advice and framework in Stash Statement, however, gave me the guidance and confidence I needed to sew some made fabric and use it in blocks for Bloom Chicka Boom ...


There is a blog hop with patterns from Stash Statement happening now. (Visit Kelly’s site to see what others are quilting from the book.) My turn isn’t until mid-June, so you will have to wait until then to see this quilt and all 16 of its fabulously oversized blocks. ; )

Also on My Sewing Table

I couldn’t leave you without sharing a few sneak peeks of other projects. After all, the problem with having so much stuff going on at once is that it will be a while before I have a completed project. (But when I do get to that point, the finishes should come in quick succession!)

I took three charm packs of Janet Clare’s Aubade collection and some Kona Snow, and made a few hundred half-square triangles. Eventually, I’ll sew them together to make a simple quilt top!


I’m also sewing up wonky stars, including the ones below. (This design, called Blaze and created by Adrianne Ove, is from Classic Modern Quilts.)


And I’m piecing a medallion top by Lynne Goldsworthy from an old issue of Love Patchwork and Quilting. This pattern has everything—arrows, crosses, plus signs, and more—and I’m sewing it with Karen Lewis’s first Blueberry Park line and a not-quite-white shade of Grunge.


Can you relate to the multi-project chaos I am experiencing now? I have other WIPs to tell you about, but I won’t be sewing them until a few of these are in the bag!

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9 comments:

  1. I, too, have a few projects on the go. All your blocks look great. Looking forward to seeing more as they progress.

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  2. I think that letting the Lizzy House Whisper Palette dictate the whole quilt palette sounds wonderful. I look forward to seeing more. I really think Kelly's approach to scrappy sewing is a great way to ease into improvisation. And I really think Karen Lewis is a lovely person, so I'm excited to see you working with her Blueberry Park line and look forward to seeing where it will go.

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  3. I have a couple projects going on right now. I hope to get focused and complete one or more this next week! I'm anxious to see your low volume quilt...great idea to use those fabrics!

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  4. You have a lot of great projects going on! Hopefully you'll be able to make lots of good progress before the end of school! I feel like I have no focus lately. I have three projects in the works and every time I start to work on one, I think, "OH! But I should work on the other one!", and then, nothing gets accomplished. Good luck with them all! Cant wait to see the finishes!

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  5. Wow, I have the "Stash Statement" book on my wish-list. Looks like a very interesting quilt. I think I'll buy it sooner rather than later!

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  6. Fun projects! I see you got into the spirit of wonky with the stars. I don’t usually have more than one of a type of project going at once—I get easily overwhelmed because I make a big enough mess with one project. I do usually have a piecing project and a couple of hand projects going, though.

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  7. Oooh, using Blueberry Park for a whole quilt is a great idea. Those colors still stand out to me. And great textures too. Your "made" fabric came out great, btw. Yay for success at something new =)

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  8. I am in the exact same boat as you - working on several projects at once. AND, I just ordered Kelly's book the other day and am beyond excited to get it! I need to get my scraps under control and I'm hoping her organized way of making fabric will produce better results than I've had in the past. Can't wait to see some of your finishes.

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  9. Same here, projects all over the place. I love your plan with the low Value fabrics and the ‘made’ fabric. I recently heard of it for the first time. Blueberry Park are such great fabrics, I’m using them in Fancy Forest quilt blocks!

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