Day: July 9, 2023

I’ve been sewing every day. It’s great to have that work in the 90+ degree days we have been having.

Of course I have been sewing every day. “I sew” should be on my car’s license plate!

Here are the “Summer Camp” mystery blocks from last week, and I’m working on the 5th set of blocks now. (Next week is the 6th and final set and the reveal.) The bottom blocks, with their contrasting little “windows” nearly did me in. Every piece of that block had to be spot-on perfect for the block to measure out at 5.5 inches. Every piece, from cutting to sewing. That requirement is harder when you are working with a thicker solid cotton–which I am with mostly all Kona cotton. But…I persevered, though it wasn’t fun. And the green block with yellow “windows” is not perfect. I may redo it…later. It measures ok; it’s just a bit “wonkier” than I like. (Yes, I’m a perfectionist.)

With thicker fabrics, one must find the magic place where a skinnier seam accounts for the fold of the seam when pressed. Remember–it is NOT the making of a perfect 1/4 inch seam that makes a unit perfect, because a perfect 1/4 seam might not create perfection. You always want to sew, then measure your unit to see if you’ve hit the magic seam spot.

The Modern Quilt Studio “Summer Camp” designers are using a much thinner cotton (Bernartex Superior Solids) and are pressing their seams open–which makes a block like this difficult one easier. For sure. But each piece in the block still needs to be absolutely straight and perfect, or it will throw the rest of the block off. And let me just say that these folks make gorgeous quilts! I am so happy to find this web site. And I’m so enjoying making this mystery quilt.

But, I make, for the most part, functional quilts, so I don’t want to be pressing seams open if I can avoid it–as they weaken a quilt. My quilts get used and washed and dried. Or, I hope they do. And I have a lot of Kona solid cottons after four years taking the online “The Color Collective” class with Tara Faughnan, so I want to use what I already have on hand. And, in general, I’m not a fan of these thinner quilting fabrics. But, that’s just me.

Here’s a sneak peek at the corner where two sides of the border in “the quilt from hell” meet. I’m working on sewing together the third border side now. This darker border is so perfect for this quilt. But like everything else with this quilt, I’m sewing around the circles to install the border, which is…hard. But, I can see the end. And I have a backing fabric (a Ruby Star Society blender fabric) and a thinner batting in case I want to hand quilt it.

The Traverse quilt is all basted and ready for me to hand quilt it, which I will do when “the quilt from hell” border is done and installed.

And oh my gosh!! This half-square triangle quilt continues to be so, so much fun. I need to make A LOT more half-square triangles to complete the border, which is gobbling up the solid fabric stash. This quilt has grabbed most of the design wall now. The center and outer border (that’s a midnight blue/purple color) are all sewn together now. The outer border is just pinned to the design wall. The quilt will be just under 80-inches square when finished.

The big red blocks are pushed to the side now. That’s ok. They will come before any other project. Yes, even the mystery quilt blocks after the reveal.

So, you see that I have, as usual, LOTS of fun projects happening. Five, to be exact: Traverse, the quilt from hell, big red, half-square triangles, and the mystery quilt. And, there are other projects stored and waiting for me. But I’m making a dent in those too. Big red is one of those stored projects.