Author: stitchedinlayers

Clever name Jen Kingwell gave this pattern; because it really does become your own world. Fabric selection and placement is quite detailed, and personal. Instagram has been a museum of My Small World Quilts.

And sew I began collecting all the bits and pieces from my stash to build this quilt.  My quilting friend in Colorado began at the same time.  January 2020.  We began on the left side, what I called the city, and worked our way to the left, what I called the country.  The sky required sew many little pieces!  I kept mine all blue, but worked from Night to Day.

The pattern is written in sections, sew easy to monitor progress, or lack there of.  Pam raced ahead at this point and having too many projects going or unable to focus, I slowed!

There were sew many color decisions to make!

But all those little pieces were very fun!

The last sections has some hand applique, sew again things slowed. I did get to use lots of my purples!

And two years later it is pieced and ready to quilt!  A whole other set of decisions!  I am very happy with My Small World; its happy and cheerful and busy and yet calm.

 

We have a group that had been getting together pretty regularly once a month to stitch and chat and eat lunch. 5 of us for ten years? We started working on the quilt called Blue Vase.

Two with kits; two of us using our own fabrics. One just watching and cheering. We shared the templates each month and plugged away. Eventually we were gathering and working on various other personal projects. Its been a long and inspiring friendship. With the Pandemic in place we have not been gathering. We’ve relied on texts to keep up with projects and each other.

This month we decided to take on a challenge/group project. Each was invited to take on a Suzy Quilts pattern. A wonderful “modern” quilter that caught our eye. Something new and different for everyone!

Cindi is taking on Thrive. In her own colors.

Judi is taking on Minimal Triangles in gray and black maybe.

And I am making Stars Hollow.

I pulled some bright solids from my stash and started cutting.

Made a test square today and loved her directions!

We hope to keep each other working toward a finished quilt top with encouragement from Donna and Kathi who are watching from the sidelines this go round. Stay tuned!

The goal this February was to piece all 112 Chopsticks blocks for a long overdue commemorative quilt for OneMonthlyGoal by Elm Street Quilts. I tried at least every day to sew some. It took over an hour to sew each stack.

There were certainly some long days to get finished by today, but I had gotten sew far I wanted to put the blocks together.

I took so many pictures of all the blocks laid out trying to get balance from all the different fabrics.

Then once the rows were finished, I still had time to sew rows, and then I put in serious hours. Several 6 hours days, put sew worth it.

The trimming of the blocks was a little nerve racking.

But I have a quilt top!

I had collected these fabrics years ago and even raided friends stashes to add a few more; but it left me very few large pieces for a backing. Sew, I stitched some more!

I have quilted this pattern for a customer before and made a baby quilt with it as well. So I have custom designs by Nancy Thomas that I will use.

On to the Long Arm tomorrow!

Our son graduated from Virginia Tech more than a few years ago and I had bought up lots of VT colored fabrics. Elm Street Quilts has been encouraging setting quilting goals and I’ve joined in.

I had also chosen a pattern. Chopsticks

I spent a long weekend in January,, organizing the fabrics and doing a little stitching.

Sew now I have a few sample blocks made and fabrics paired up. The goal in February is to get all 114 blocks pieced.

There are quilters who take a theme or concept and make many quilts. Janet Stone comes to mind. She has the most beautiful alphabet quilts. Here is a photo I took in 2019 at the Mid Atlantic quilt show in Hampton Virginia.

I read somewhere that her goal is 26; and so far the completed ones have won many prizes. Here is where I found pictures of many of her quilts with some close ups.

Amanda Jean Nyberg of Crazy Mom Quilts (although she has dropped her Blog), is a queen of quilts from her stash. She has written two books that I love to browse through; Sunday Morning Quilts and

She has maintained her wonderful quilts to see on Instagram and has a Salute to Solids series of quilts that I have loved following.

In 2003, or shortly there after, I saw Becky Goldsmith’s quilt Everyday Best.

I loved it! I loved the polka dots, and loved the cheerfulness, and oh how clever! I have several of her books and or patterns and love to browse these as well. I have yet to make one, but she inspired me to start collecting polka dots with a vengeance. And they are so much more available now, 17 years later. My inspiration!

Sew why not have a series of Polka Dot Quilts? They wouldn’t be original designs, but, fun for me just the same. And I have a good start!

Twirling Hexagons; pattern by Cindi Edgerton at A Very Special Collection was the top I finished in April 2020 for UFO Challenge, and was the Rainbow Quilt I did month to month with Angela in 2019.

Circle Squared was a Karen K Buckley class I took in February 2017 I think; it was a hot mess! The applique technique just wasn’t working for me, sew I remade the whole thing and in 2020 it cheers my sewing room finished.

My third (How many should there be? I still have sew many polka dots left.) Polka Dot Quilt in progress is My Small World. This quilt was designed by Jen Kingwell, and it has quite the following on Instagram; so many unique variations of the same quilt. I have recently completed Section 3 of the 7 using my polka dots.

I have begun pieces and parts of the next sections as well.

I think a Log Cabin Polka dot quilt could be wonderful and maybe my final one could be my inspiration Everyday Best by Becky Goldsmith.