August 2024 Quilting Report

I have been busy sewing the blocks for my monthly subscription quilt. I haven't been blogging much but I have still been sewing.

I love doing the Substack newsletter and I just published more doll dress patterns for the 14" doll in the paid subscriber Doll Clothes Pattern Club edition for July. I write about all sorts of things that I am doing in this newsletter each week with a special Doll Clothes Pattern Club edition in the 4th week of each month.

https://valspiers.substack.com/p/30-doll-clothes-pattern-club-edition?r=2ehkbg

I am presently working on the July blocks of the Down Wander Lane quilt. It has lots of American red, white and blue blocks.

Happy Quilting,

Val

Weekly Sewing Report

I am feeling the strain of working on the intricate blocks every day so I am going to weekly reports for a while. I feel like I want to do things other than quilting.

I will do some work on my garden quilt this week. I need to do some appliqué edging.

Behind this block I have my doll clothes sewing ready to cut out and try a new design.

I also have a lovely tea towel that my daughter brought from Japan that I want to cut into two strips and hem. There is also a cute piece of fabric that I want to quilt as a table runner.

Lots to keep me busy and give me a break from piecing.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

The second bird went together much easier than the first. 

I now have the very piecey art blocks and flower blocks to do. This month is turning out to be a lot more fiddly than the first two.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 Here is my first birdie. It was quite tricky to put together but it turned out almost exactly 6 1/2" square.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

The bird block has so many little pieces. It took me 15mins or so to get the right pieces out of the folder and get one lined up ready to sew. Oh well. Some progress is better than none.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

I've started doing other things in the morning before I sew and write and this morning we went to the shops as well. It's nearly 4pm so a bit later than I intended.

I have finished the second bird in the nest block.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

I thought I better get on with the blocks so I finished cutting out and made the first of two bird in the nest blocks. Yesterday went by the way with family staying.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

I finished the binding on the mini quilt this morning. I had to look up how to finish the ends of the binding again. I knew it was an ingenious method that I never would have thought of myself but I think it may be used in the quilting world. I know different people have different ways to finish their binding ends.

Here is my finished mini. Front...

...and back.

And here it is in one of the places I will use it. It will generally be a mat for my tea pots and coffee mugs on the side table or counter.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 I took a break from the cutting out and made a mini from the same pattern book. I used scraps from the kits. to do the appliqué and I needed som brown from my stash for the tree.

It's 8" square. The other minis I made had a backing that was stitched around and turned right side out. This time I am using a face washer that is part of a pile I decluttered from my bathroom cupboard yesterday.

I spray basted the top onto the face washer and did some echo quilting.

I will be putting binding on this one tomorrow. The borders and binding are some fabric I had in a bag. There was just enough.

The toweling backing is great for putting teapots on my table.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

I'm not a fan of the cutting out. I managed 5 more fabrics from the list today. There are quite a few pieces that only need to be cut into one piece next so I guess another 2 days to get it done. I am only working for as long as I can concentrate on the measurements, which is about 40 mins or so. 

It is also surprisingly hard on the hands and shoulders because I don't use my muscles in just that way very often. The first kit that I cut out I did over 2 days and I couldn't work out why my shoulder blade was so sore. Then it dawned on me that it was the cutting out. It was actually my left shoulder that was sore because I was pushing down hard on the ruler to hold it still while I cut.

It's just the fabrics on the right that I did today.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

I missed a day but that's OK. I wore my amethyst bracelets the last few days and my pearl and pink opal bracelets. They give me such pleasure and they come with affirmations to make me feel good about myself. I love making my own bracelets and looking up what powers they are supposed to have.

I give myself permission to rest and re-energise.

I feel fulfilled and I am happy with my life.

I am in harmony with my personal power.

This morning I just cut the pieces to make the appliqué block and sewed it together.

This afternoon I attached all the appliqué pieces.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 My table is ready to work but I just didn't feel like it today.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 Just enough done to say I did something this morning.

I cut out only 3 different fabrics.

This week I picked up my quilting extras from the post office. I ordered them from the Quilting Bear.

I have a 12" rotating mat and a 6 1/2" square ruler.

I haven't used the rotating mat yet.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

Last Quarter in the Southern Hemisphere

Over the past few years I have been enable to link my energy levels to the phases of the moon. For the next 10 days or so I will have low energy. That is a fact that I have noticed over the years. I wondered why I seemed to go up and down all the time. I still don't know why exactly but my ups and downs coincide with the full moon and last quarter/new moon. 

I don't attribute any magic to the moon but my scientific side thinks it possible that some people are affected by the moon cycle since we evolved with the moon cycle as part of our environment. I consider myself to be a highly sensitive person so maybe that is why I feel the affect of the moon cycle.

Anyway, the result is I feel unfocused and a little fragile and more likely to make stupid mistakes. So I am going slow and only doing what I feel comfortable working on. When I have high energy I am likely to be overconfident and make reckless mistakes. I look forward to the in between times.

Today I finished the appliqué block for April and cut out the fussy cut house pieces from the May kit.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

Not much going on today. I didn't feel like I could focus on the free motion for the whole sky. I just did a bit of sky and around the flower and leaves. 

I spent a few minutes sorting out the fabrics ready for cutting out the next kit. I have found that cutting out all at once leaves my arms and shoulders a bit sore so I will spread it out over three days this time.

It's a bit hard to see but I have started doing loops that cross over. It's surprising how hard it is to make them cross when I am used to the style where you just wiggle around.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 

Just some free motion quilting today. I did around the eggs and the bunnies and the house and butterfly. Then I did the grass.

I still have to do the sky and the plant.

You can see where I "fixed" the size with a strip on the side but I am confident it will not affect the look of my quilt.

I have now set up my machine to do my doll clothes sewing this afternoon. It is so freeing to have a set time for quilting and doll dressmaking. It means that my mind is not occupied with thoughts of having to sew every waking minute. 

I sew in my set times and other times I am thinking or planning or reading or just doing nothing. I never thought it would make such an impact on my day to have a creation routine. 

I love doing the patchwork and quilting and I love designing and making the doll clothes but they were consuming me and making me anxious without me realising. Scheduling my productive time seems counterintuitive for a creative free spirit! But as I said, it has helped to free up my mind for the creative thinking.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 

The raw edge appliqué stitching didn't take long this morning so I added on the checker strip and the batting. I actually thought I had the things in the plan for today but when I looked I saw that I had written the strip and batting for tomorrow. Because I wrote it down last might I thought it was on today's agenda.

I don't usually look at my planner first thing because I pretty much do the same every day. Quilting, writing and doll dressmaking.

A pesky thing I noticed with my block is that it is 1/2" too narrow. No idea why. The green grass hill that is part of the appliqué is only 12" when it is supposed to be 12 1/2". I checked the pieces I cut and I have cut them smaller. The only explanation is that I read my cutting ruler wrong. But why is the precept grass only 12"? Oh well. I will have to fudge putting it together somehow. Even if I add a strip down the side.

These things happen :(

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

Finally got the last of the 12 blocks done for April.

I now have two weeks of cat sitting. This is the lovely Miles.

I started the raw edge appliqué free motion stitching. I only had a bit of bobbin left so I stopped when it ran out. I just got the eggs done.

I won't quite get April finished before May starts but I have high hopes for getting the May kit done before the end of May.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 I was a bit distracted this morning because I was thinking about finishing my latest doll dress pattern ready for publishing. I lost a bit of time while my daughter was visiting so I was a bit behind with my schedule for the pattern. 

The pattern needs to go out today with the newsletter so it will bug me until it is done. I also knew that if I didn't do the quilt block first I probably wouldn't get back to it. Hence the distraction and the annoying mistake I had to correct in the basket block.

I got the bottom corner the wrong way round and had to unpick it.

Crisis averted with no harm done except to my state of mind. It just highlighted how anxious I was about the doll dress pattern. A bit of stress is OK and I know it doesn't really matter if I make a mistake on the block or have to delay my newsletter post for half a day or even a whole day. Writing about it now helps to put it all in perspective.

Only one more pesky basket block left to do. (And only a few bits of instruction editing left on the doll dress pattern as I publish this blog post.)

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 

Another basket block today.

Yesterday I listened to a minimalist expert tell me that it is wrong to want things. Yeah right. Like that goes down well with a quilter. I did think I needed to make my work table a bit neater so I put the dolls behind my computer and divided the table so quilting things were on one side and doll dressmaking things were on the other side. It's much nicer now.

I also thought that I might put some stacks of my doll clothes fabrics at the back of the doll dressmaking side so I can be thinking about what I will design next. Never a thought of getting rid of anything. I would say that I am not addicted to buying things just because I get an email or see an ad. I also don't think I could live without having many different choices of threads or trims or teapots and cups and tea.

I don't think I will ever be a minimalist! But I do like to have my things neatly arranged most of the time.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 

I was a bit tired this morning so I decided to just tackle one of these basket blocks. The little HST are made by sewing diagonally across the two pieces of fabric then cutting it many times. The seams are a pain. They seem to go every which way. So just one block today.

I have to do 3 more basket blocks, free motion stitch the appliqué block and then quilt it. I already have the next kit but I won't be starting that until I finish this one. 

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

Today I did my quilting later so my sewing wouldn't disturb my visitors.

I have done the second two tulip blocks in pinks.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 

This morning I managed two tulip blocks. They have a left and right so it takes some concentration to get the pieces right.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 

I am working on the Bunny Knoll blocks. Each month has its own book of instructions with full colour photo of the items you can make. There is a set of items for each month that feature the theme for the month. Bunny Knoll has:

• a chicks mini quilt
• a Hoppy Easter pot holder
• a tulip mini
• a Some Bunny Loves You mini mug rug or pillow
• a tulip field table topper
• a Happy Easter quilt or pillow cover
• a Bunny Knoll small quilt (30" square)

I will have a lovely collection of small project ideas at the end of the year.

Today I pressed all the appliqué pieces onto the 12" block and I finished the set of 9 patch 6" blocks.

Feel free to comment or just say hello. It's been a while since I was quilt blogging.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

I am really enjoying seeing this quilt progress. I like working in the morning first thing after I get up. It seems so easy to get things done. Once I catch up with the April blocks I want to start doing a bit of this quilt then a bit of the Garden quilt I have pulled out to complete.

This is the Down Wander Lane quilt I am working on.

There is an appliqué block for each month of the year. I have the kits for Feb, Mar and April.

Because the kits are for the 12 small quilts I will have to do the outer border in two colours with the border fabric from two kits. The same with the binding. Once I get all the 12" blocks together I will play with the borders.

Today I cut the rest of the fabric and sewed up one 9 patch block and the appliqué block background. I also got out the pieces for the rest of the 9 patch blocks ready for tomorrow.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 Today I started the April kit. I have a few weeks to get this one done before the next kit arrives.

I have created some routines to help me make easy progress. The night before I spend a few minutes setting up my area so I can just walk in next morning and start without thinking.

It felt good to see my table all ready for cutting this morning.

I spent about an hour cutting out. I still have a bit less than half to go. Each fabric is used in several blocks so I save all the pieces in one fabric in their own sleeve. When I start a block I check the cutting list and find all the pieces of fabric I need for that block.

I have reset my table ready for my doll clothes sewing this evening. I have my computer next to my sewing machine so I will be sewing and writing instructions. 

Cheers,

Val