Eurora Quilt Update March 2021

The Euroa quilt 3/5 of the way done. Phew!

It’s taken me over 3 years to get to this point. Until Covid I was averaging a column a year. For how often I work on this, that seemed decent to me. Sewing in snippets of time on the pool deck, outside of fencing practice, beside the dance studio, and sometimes while watching F1. A few times in the car or a mountain cabin too.

I actually had all the blocks for the third column done last year, but lost motivation for any kind of hand stitching as Covid and winter wore on. But that finishing kick I’ve been on hand me hand stitching binding and that sparked the joy again. A few weeks ago I pulled these out and got the last column sewn together and then all the columns joined. With the kids back in school and activities now it is a good way to force me to slow down a little, again. Stitching happens in the car or at home now since we aren’t allowed in any of their spaces, but it still works.

My goal is to make 2 more columns. That will make the quilt 80” x 80”. There are 400 individual blocks. I assemble them block by block, then make a 4 patch, then a 4 patch of those. I haven’t actually timed myself for making them, I’d rather not know. Nope, just enjoying the process, one stitch at a time.

There have been quite a few requests for this template/pattern lately. While I am not selling it anymore I am working on an alternative. Make sure you are signed up for my newsletter to be among the first to know when it happens!

Morning Make December 2020

December saw a decided slow down, a necessary slow down. I was in the mood for hand stitching plus I wanted something that would carry me through the quiet holiday at home. Having done embroidery in February and already working on English Paper Piecing I decided to try something entirely new to me.

Pojagi is a Korean art form of patchwork. It can be done by machine, but I chose to go the original route of hand stitching. The end result is a finished seam from both sides. This means any Pojagi piece is entirely reversible.

It was never a one piece of fabric to represent one day in the month kind of project. Some days I did a single short seam, some days I did five. I will say that, initially, I thought I would make it into a curtain or shade for one of my sewing room windows. The low winter sun and Zoom events mean I have to diffuse the light coming in the room for part of the day. This would have been a very traditional use for the Pojagi. But it’s a big window! So partway through the month I switched plans and made it longer rather that wider, sealing its fate as a table runner (if I finished it.)

The first exposure I had to Pojagi was years ago from Victoria Gertenbach. Despite the time passing, it has always stuck in my head. She did machine work, but it was the history and the effect that stayed with me. For a hand stitched technique I used this tutorial. I won’t lie, I had to look at the tutorial each day for a week while I worked on it to have it make sense.

For materials and colour I stayed close to home. Many examples of Korean work will use different materials from silks to polyesters. I stuck with quilting cottons and linens, a mixture pulled from my stash. Included in this was a sparkly linen left behind when a friend from Australia visited, leftover blues from Shiver, and a scrap of fabric used to sop up dye when we tie dyed sheets with the kids last summer. My fabric pull was, in the end, an homage to a winter sunrise here.

I did actually finish this piece. It felt silly to leave it behind to be both forgotten and potentially wrecked. During downtime and while supervising virtual school this week I hemmed the edges. The tree is still up, candles light our evenings, and a lovely reminder to slow down graces the table.

As for Morning Make I am going to continue on the monthly change for 2021. I really liked the strong focus for a relatively short period of time. It is fostering play and exploration but still allows me to dig in to something new a little.

Morning Make August 2020

At the start of the month I knew I needed something slow and meditative to start my days. Something that wasn’t pushing or pulling, something that could be interrupted, something pretty. I had a couple of ideas for doodles so just ran with that.

Really, that’s all these are: doodles. Playing with markers and sometimes a ruler, I doodled my way through the month. Some are intricate and detailed, many play with scale, and almost all are an experiment. Not once did I plan, sketch, or try an idea first. Like improv quilting for me, it was about making it work once I got started. It’s easy to see that some are more striking than others. You can’t win them all. Then again, it was all about the process, not the product. Just like improv quilting.

Speaking of fabric… As I posted these on IG daily I got quite a bit of feedback about turning them into fabric. Never was that my intention, but I can also see the potential. It could go a few ways and maybe that will be something I can play with if time allows or interest dictates.

I can say that this was one of my favourites of the year. It was so soothing to work on all of these. I could get lost in making the marks, filling the page, seeing the idea through to fill. And it was exactly what my mental health needed at the time.

So, if these were to develop into something like fabric, which ones do you like the best?

Morning Make - June 2020

When I am teaching certain quilt classes I get students to draw. This is because if you can’t draw the line, you can’t sew the line. Inevitably one or a handful of people complain about their drawing skills. The self deprecation and apologies spread like wildfire. I shut it all down by showing them how I draw!

Spoiler alert: I do not draw well at all!

So for Morning Make in June I decided I would draw an object or scene in my home every morning. You can’t improve on something if you don’t do it with some regularity.

After a month of practice I’ve come to the following conclusions:

• 30 days is nowhere near enough practice to make noticeable improvements.

• Areas of improvement I would like - simpler lines AND shading. I seemed to land somewhere in between in the awkwardness showed in my drawing.

• Perspective is a failing on mine.

• My drawings were definitely sketches and not my best work.

• I definitely do not have a career as an illustrator in my future.

All that being said, I enjoyed the process. Some days I did struggle with the decision on what to draw. I also can’t say that I liked what I did most of the time. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a worthwhile effort. I learned what I would need to improve on. I learned that I should try and pick one style and work harder on that to see more improvement. I learned that you don’t have to know how to draw in order to draw.