24 Shades of Everything but Gray

This past week, I received a kind shout-out from the folks at Pink Chalk Studios about a pencil roll I made, and I thought I’d share it with you—because it’s a fun and colorful project.

Back in the day, when I only dreamed of making a quilt, I bought myself a copy of Joelle Hoverson’s Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. Joelle cleverly divides the projects presented, some of which she designed herself and some of which were contributed by others, by how long they take to complete.

The pencil roll, designed by Pink Chalk Studios, is categorized as a 2- to 4-hour project. Whatever! It’s more like a 2- to 4-year project! Back then, I had a humble stash, virtually no scrap collection (an essential for creating a project like this), and zero confidence in selecting fabric. So I started from scratch, and it took a darn long time to come up with the necessary 24 colors to coordinate with the colored pencils. Like, it took so long that a project I intended for my niece and nephew became a project for my own son—by the time I curated the collection of fabrics, my niece and nephew were too old for a pencil-roll gift.

You, of course, would not have that dilemma. I know you’ve got a great stash and a burgeoning scrap pile—so there’s probably no need to cut into your yardage anyway.

If you decide to tackle this project, may I make a suggestion? Crank out four or five of them assembly-line style. That’s how I got mine. I made five of them for my son and his buddies. Recently, when going through my yet-to-be-gifted pile of projects, I came across the fifth one and knew I needed to hold onto it for myself. Glad I did. : )

I’m linking up this post to Finish It Up Friday and TGIFF!

Update: I’m also joining the fun over at Stitch by Stitch’s Anything Goes Monday for the first time!

Oh, How I Love My Hexies

My obsession of the past week—hexagons—are not what might come to mind when you think of hexagons. They are not sweet, little, English paper-pieced hexagons. (For the record, I adore EPP hexies, but since I’m morally opposed to doing anything by hand, you’ll not find them on my to-do list.) These are huge, 16-inch hexagons. Some of them are hexagons within hexagons. And I am so darn smitten with them.

If you visited last week when I first talked about hexagons, you know that I’m doing a BOM program through my local quilt shop, which uses Jaybird Quilts’ Park Bench design and Carolyn Friedlander’s Botanics line. I’m 99.9 percent caught up on these guys. (For whatever reason, my LQS subbed a fabric in for one of the May blocks, and I’m not into it; that’s on hold until I come up with a sub for the sub.) Here’s the rest of the lineup thus far:

I cannot tell you how much fun these hexies are to cut and assemble. I love using Jaybird Quilts’ specialized rulers, and the Botanics line is nothing short of gorgeous—it really deserves all the attention it’s received. And I’m accumulating a nice pile of Botanics scraps. Why didn’t it occur to me that this project would feed my scrap collection?! I can only imagine what I’ll do with these pretty little leftover bits and pieces.

What about you? Have you done any of JQs’ patterns? (Audrey over at Hot Pink Quilts recently unveiled her latest iteration of JQs’ Northern Lights—she’s made a bunch of quilts with that design.) I’d love to hear your recommendations and invite you to gush about your own love of hexies.

Linking up to . . .

When Bad Things Happen to Good Quilts

Prepare yourself for a story of woe . . .

Three weeks ago I ask the fine readers of WIP Wednesday to help me with a plan to quilt my Farmer’s Market Quilt. I was encouraged by the responses and set out to wrap this one up . . .

I started by quilting the narrow strips of navy fabric with navy thread. I liked the navy on navy. Good move.

(Fabric facts: Bonnie and Camille’s Happy Go Lucky, a beautiful navy couture fabric from perhaps Michael Miller, Kona Salmon, and Kona White.)

But then I couldn’t decide what color to quilt the rest of it. Navy thread looked weird on the white fabric. White thread looked weird on the navy. Gray—my stab at a happy medium—looked weird on both the navy and the white fabrics.

Plan B: Keep the machine quilting I had already done on those narrow strips and hand-tie the rest of the quilt. I’m not crazy about the look of hand-tying, especially after a trip or two through the washer, so I bound the quilt and decided to wash it before tying. (I’m a spray baster and wanted the adhesive to release from the fabric before gifting this quilt anyway.)

Yeah, I wish I hadn’t done that. Once I pulled the quilt from the dryer, I saw that a seam had opened in one of the navy diamonds.

It’s important to point out that I did not cry. I did not swear. I did not throw anything. I did, however, put the quilt in a time-out for a good three days.

When I felt mentally prepared to deal with the gaping hole in my otherwise beautiful quilt, I came up with a plan. I slipped a long, skinny strip of fusible interfacing under the wimpy seam and set it with an iron. Then I zigzagged along that seam as well as all the other seams in the navy diamonds. If one seam came apart in the washer, another one could. I really didn’t want to take any chances. I’ve seen some lovely zigzag quilting (see, for example, Rachel Hauser’s Tilt-a-Whirl). My take was definitely function over form.

The tragedy does not end there. I spent a few hours wrestling with tension issues. I finally got things to the point where I could use salmon-colored thread in the bobbin on those zigzags. I can only see the tiniest bits of navy from the back of the quilt.

The true outcome of this quilting experience: a pretty quilt and a resolution to quilt more densely (and not to wash prematurely—duh!). Also: buy a higher-end machine. It’s time. If you’ve blogged about your love for your machine, I’d love to hear about it!

I’m linking up this post to Finish It Up Friday and TGIFF!