Monthly Archives: July 2020

Fancy Fox

Posted on by
2

Fancy Fox
July 2020

After experimenting with the quilt as you go (QAYG) method on my recent quilt Persistence, I continued practicing the technique here on Fancy Fox. However, instead of quilting each individual block, I quilted two rows at a time, which I liked better, especially since I prefer to hand stitch the back seam of each joined panel. I had originally planned six rows, but in the midst of making it, I decided to gift it to my grandson who likes foxes. So, I added a seventh row to make it a better length for his twin-sized bed.

 

The fox fabric was fairly new, while all the other fabrics were leftovers from other quilt projects.

 

Persistence

Posted on by
6

Persistence
July 2020

I’ve been working on this off and on since January 2019. Life got crazy in 2019 with my daughter diagnosed with breast cancer, so this got put to the back burner. I am calling this Persistence, in recognition of my daughter’s fight with cancer, and for this quilt challenging my quilting and sewing capabilities to the max! Today is my daughter’s 1 year cancer-free, cancerversary.

 

“Never lose hope. Storms make people stronger and never last forever.” ― Roy T. Bennett

 

I had received ‘The Quilt Block Bible’ (Rosemary Youngs) the Christmas before, and wanted to play with making different blocks to create a sampler quilt. Well, why not try it as a QAYG method, something I hadn’t tried until then. And, why not throw in a Mola as the center block, which is a different size format. What was I thinking?!?

 

“Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.” ― Roy T. Bennett

 

Most of the fabrics were newly purchased fat quarters, but there are some pieces of the past fabric in there too. Each block has a different orange fabric backing, using leftover fabric from the front blocks. After adding the sashing (stitch in ditch on front, seam shows on back), I was not happy with the seam showing on the back. So, I ripped them out and hand sewed all my back seams. Then, I thought I had done enough quilting on top, but when I washed, I realized I should have done more quilting in the piano key border, as the batting there rolled, requiring me to rip open some of the edge binding to get in and lay it flat again. Then back to the machine to add quilting to the border to make the batting stay in place. So, as you can see, Persistence is a fine name for this!

 

“It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down. All that matters is you get up one more time than you were knocked down.” ― Roy T. Bennett

 

Zuzu’s Petals

Posted on by
2


Zuzu’s Petals
July 2020

A few months ago, I experimented for the first time with making stack and whack blocks. At that time, I only made two blocks, using different fabric for each block. I then turned each block into a trivet. I was not overly impressed with the stack and whack technique and results: starting with “nice looking fabric”, cutting it up and reassembling it, and ending up with a different “nice looking fabric”. When I expressed this observation to a quilting group that I’m a member of, I was encouraged to make more than just one block – that with more blocks from the same fabric, the results would be much more dynamic.

Zuzu’s Petals is the result of my giving the stack and whack technique another shot. The fabric is some that I’ve had in my stash since the 1990’s, back when the colors country blue and rose were all the rage. I used this same fabric for the border.  Aside from the construction nightmares of having two different sized hexies, and wanting to add white sashing between them, I had fun making this quilt, and will definitely try the stack and whack technique again!

This was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services for a child in foster care in October 2020.