Exclamation Points!!

I’m not sure I’m done saying the words that need the exclamation points, but it seems I am doing sewing the exclamation points.

This 100% Covid inspired quilt top is now ready for a date under the needles to turn it into a quilt. That’s the point when I can be more reflective, maybe a bit more quiet, possibly a tiny bit excited. Or still saying a lot of things!

Free Video Tutorial! for this block.

We are still very much in Covid times. We are still very much in a reckoning regarding Black Lives Matter and a strong need for anti-racist actions. We are still tired, stressed, privileged, scared, bored, anxious, frustrated, angry, grieving, and maybe a tiny bit hopeful. We still very much need words that end with exclamation points.

Here, our kids are back in school. We had a choice between online and in person. Our kids are social creatures and the numbers, while not good, are low enough with regard to community spread (at the moment) to make us feel okay with their return. We’ve already had one round of isolation and a test for a kid with a cold, so we’ll see how it all pans out going forward. For now they are happy to have some routine and greater social interactions than the 4 families we bubbled with. And, thankfully, they all wear their masks and understand the rules.

With them in school I have some semblance of a routine developing. I’m trying to catch up on our family business. I’m also starting some online teaching. Right now it is all through guilds and stores, but Zoom is indeed a remarkable platform for delivering classes. It’s working for me. I’m even managing a bit of yoga and dog walks while still feeding sourdough and stress baking cookies!

It’s all good, until it isn’t. As we’ve been saying to the kids since March, we take this one day at a time.

Sunny Day Stars

Sunny Day Stars

72” x 72”

This was one of the oldest quilts from the Quilts Under Construction list. I looked back and realized I started it in 2007! It began as a free Block of the Month called Celestial Migraine by Planet Patchwork. Shortly after the year it ran the whole thing disappeared. (Planet Patchwork also appears to be no more.) I think I made 3/12 blocks. I do remember that the final quilt was quite lovely in a seemingly random layout with a lot of negative space, mimicking stars in the night sky.

Over the years I would make another star block or two when I was craving some precision piecing. Lucky for me there are a tonne of traditional, free star block patterns. A few modern ones too. Then late last summer I got it in my head to actually finish this quilt. Well, at least the top! So I set out to make stars.

Each star block is repeated 3 times, for a total of 12 different star patterns. Each one, however, has a different combination of fabrics. Orange, gold, green, grey, beige, and white. In truth, it is a rather spring coloured quilt. But I finished the top during a September snow storm and finished the whole thing in the summer thunder storms. Still all about the sunshine!

It was a lot of fun to play with fabric on this quilt. Some stars pop, others recede. By playing with the contrast between the stars and the background, or the different components of the design I could change the entire look. The key was making sure not one star was too bossy.

The quilt back started with the scraps from making the last of the stars. Little bits and leftover triangles sewn together for fun. I used that as the centre and raided my stash for the rest. That large floral just happens to go with the first stars I made years ago. All of them are from a collection by Heather Bailly. The rest was just stuff I had around to make it work.

Quilting inspiration came from Dara Tomasson and her book, Walk, Jog, Run. She shared a ribbon quilting pattern - essentially a large meander that you echo to look like a ribbon. It was perfect for this. I quilted the whole thing in a peach Aurifil 50W.

I won’t lie, I wanted a green binding. Alas, there was not enough of the right greens in my stash and these are Covid times. No in person shopping. Then I found the grey and white stripe hiding on the cutting table. Perfection!

This quilt is already in it’s new home. As I was finishing the quilt top last fall I decided it would eventually go to a friend of mine. I wanted to spoil her with something just for her. Giving quilty gifts is the best!

So Many Exclamation Points!

A picture is worth a thousand words.

This absolutely sums up my life right now. Summer break from school does not make for easier times in these Covid days. Nor does owning your own businesses. One block, one step, one more day at home, one mask, one walk in the forest at a time.

I’ve made a lot of Exclamation Point blocks in the past few months, a good form of therapy for sure. You can make your own too.

For the record, this is not a posed photo… he came in and did a number of poses as I was trying to capture this potential lay out for a quilt.

Wish Upon a Star

Wish Upon a Star

48” x 48”

For a little baby boy, born to parents raised across the country , a quilt to make all the wishes. Or, just to spit up, poop, and play on. And hopefully keep you warm. Heading your way soon.

This quilt is a slight adaptation of a pattern by Kristyne Czepuryk in her recent book, Perfectly Pretty Patchwork. The only change I made was to skip the outside round of stars, thus reducing the overall size of the quilt. It was a definite change in making for me - using templates and all that precision piecing! Changing things up can be good though! Keeps you on your toes.

Most of Kristyne’s work is soft, pastel, and oh so pretty. It’s gorgeous stuff but not necessarily what I am drawn to for my own quilts. Not wanting to go shopping I decided to see what I could do with what was on hand. I’d been saving this Carolyn Friedlander print for a totally different project. It had been sitting long enough, however, and deserved to see some glory. The rest of the colours came from an Ikat butterfly print by Tula Pink. You can see it there in that corner star, and again on the back (below). The nice thing about this pattern is that I could dig through my stash and scrap bins to cut the diamonds for the stars. It meant a lot of variety; scrappy all the way. The prints used are a combination of old and newer, modern and boring, bright and simple. All together I think they balance nicely and create so much visual interest.

To quilt it I simply did an edge to edge wave, varying the thickness of the lines as I went. It was nice to have the change in texture from the points on the pattern. With a pattern like this I think you can really emphasize all those points with ditch or echo quilting, or you can contrast it. Bonus: contrasting it is easier. My thread choice was a dark turquoise Aurifil in my stash. It doesn’t stand out too much anywhere but doesn’t quite blend in. I rather love it.

Binding was an unexpected choice. I didn’t have enough of any green or yellow that worked to make it around all 4 sides. I debated using the same dominant blue print. Grey seems boring too. Then I spied this other Tula Pink in the stash. It’s a really cool pixelated print of tigers. (Both the binding and the inspiration/backing fabric are from her Eden line.) Cut for binding it looks totally different! I rather like the change and I think it frames the quilt nicely.

Again, because I couldn’t pop out to the store and wanting a backing done when I wanted it done I got creative with my stash. There wasn’t enough of the butterfly print to make it so I added these big blue dots (a leftover piece of Lotta Jansdotter fabric from our collaborative Lilla quilt) as a frame. This might be one of my favourite quilt backs ever.

Thank you for pushing me out of my box a little here Kristyne! I won’t lie, I’m a little sad to send this one out the door but a certain baby boy will surely appreciate it.