I have been doing a lot of sewing, designing and planning... but most is for future secret projects so I can show just few of my weekly accomplishments! :)
The Ongoing Project List:
- Growing Up QAL - completed two May blocks, (cannot share)
- Splendid Sampler - working on "filler" blocks
- Charity quilts - no progress
- SK project - fantastic project, thanks to monthly goal setting (see below)
- Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - waiting for next month block(s)
Project QUILTING- challenges are over! I didn't win anything, but I had fun participating!- En Provence QAL - no progress
- Journaling into my Quilter's Planner - see yesterday's post
- 70273 Project - more blocks done (see below)
- Book binding - no progress
- Twilters! Bee - waiting for next month block
- 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge: entries will be open from May 19 to May 29. My piece is ready since January :)
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More blocks for the 70273 Project. If you are curious to see some of the beautiful quilts made with all these blocks check out this Pinterest board!
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Thanks to the incentive of Elm Street One Monthly Goal I finally put together "The Dark Tower" bookshelf for my giant Stephen King Project.
Back story. A couple of years ago I thought: wouldn't it be wonderful, as a super fan of Stephen King, to honor his 70th birthday (this September) by designing and making a quilt with all his books (cover and opening line)? Of course it would be wonderful and I was starting with plenty of time, right? (wrong :) ).
If you don't know, Stephen King wrote A LOT of books... so I decided to make my job easy and focus on 50 books... with book cover and opening line this would make 100 blocks.
Now...
Let talk about the blocks... they needed to be big enough for me to avoid madness in stitching micro pieces of fabric or micro letters... but they needed to be small enough so that 100 blocks wouldn't end up as a quilt that covers the entire neighborhood :)
And of course I cannot just make the blocks... I wanted to put them in a "book" setting and assemble them in a "bookshelf" layout.
I really like to make my life easy :)
I then started designing each block and sewing them up. I initially used Paper Piecing to make the covers, but I soon realized that with a 6''x7'' block, the details in those cover were driving me crazy... that's where raw edge fusible applique came to save the day!
The embroidery quotes are pretty easy and I really enjoy making them... I already have about 95% of them! For the book covers, I am quite behind.
That's why the incentive of the Monthly Goal was just great!
I decided to give myself a reachable goal: pick the 8 books of "The Dark Tower" series, put them in their book layout and assemble them in the bookshelf layout!
The result is what you see above!
Now I am very happy and terrified at the same time... While I have all my final design with the 100+ blocks in a digital format, I didn't realize how big this project will be!!
This is just 8 books. EIGHT... and it is 29''X 40''
I was already planning to assemble different sections with a Quilt-As-You-Go method, but now I am pretty sure that this is going to be my life project (maybe I could have it done by Stephen King's 80th birthday in 2027... for sure not this September).
Thanks to the Monthly Goal at least I have a great start and I have motivation now to work every week a little bit on missing blocks so that the project will (slowly) advance.
Speaking of project that I want to move forward...
My project for APRIL ONE MONTHLY GOAL is related to the Splendid Sampler.
I designed a layout that only uses 43 blocks and I have about XXX "filler" blocks that I need to make. They are blocks assembled with postage stamps orphan blocks collected in a swap I was part of few years ago. I loved their scrappyness but could never do anything with them... now they are the perfect fillers... except that I need to add a border on each of them so that they reach the correct size (and I still need to make some extras).
So my goal for April is to complete all those blocks! I don't think I will assemble them as a quilt top, but who knows! I want to set myself up for success so let's just focus on the blocks first!!
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How about you? What are YOU up to?
More blocks for the 70273 Project. If you are curious to see some of the beautiful quilts made with all these blocks check out this Pinterest board!
--
Thanks to the incentive of Elm Street One Monthly Goal I finally put together "The Dark Tower" bookshelf for my giant Stephen King Project.
Back story. A couple of years ago I thought: wouldn't it be wonderful, as a super fan of Stephen King, to honor his 70th birthday (this September) by designing and making a quilt with all his books (cover and opening line)? Of course it would be wonderful and I was starting with plenty of time, right? (wrong :) ).
If you don't know, Stephen King wrote A LOT of books... so I decided to make my job easy and focus on 50 books... with book cover and opening line this would make 100 blocks.
Now...
Let talk about the blocks... they needed to be big enough for me to avoid madness in stitching micro pieces of fabric or micro letters... but they needed to be small enough so that 100 blocks wouldn't end up as a quilt that covers the entire neighborhood :)
And of course I cannot just make the blocks... I wanted to put them in a "book" setting and assemble them in a "bookshelf" layout.
I really like to make my life easy :)
I then started designing each block and sewing them up. I initially used Paper Piecing to make the covers, but I soon realized that with a 6''x7'' block, the details in those cover were driving me crazy... that's where raw edge fusible applique came to save the day!
The embroidery quotes are pretty easy and I really enjoy making them... I already have about 95% of them! For the book covers, I am quite behind.
That's why the incentive of the Monthly Goal was just great!
I decided to give myself a reachable goal: pick the 8 books of "The Dark Tower" series, put them in their book layout and assemble them in the bookshelf layout!
The result is what you see above!
Now I am very happy and terrified at the same time... While I have all my final design with the 100+ blocks in a digital format, I didn't realize how big this project will be!!
This is just 8 books. EIGHT... and it is 29''X 40''
I was already planning to assemble different sections with a Quilt-As-You-Go method, but now I am pretty sure that this is going to be my life project (maybe I could have it done by Stephen King's 80th birthday in 2027... for sure not this September).
Thanks to the Monthly Goal at least I have a great start and I have motivation now to work every week a little bit on missing blocks so that the project will (slowly) advance.
Speaking of project that I want to move forward...
My project for APRIL ONE MONTHLY GOAL is related to the Splendid Sampler.
I designed a layout that only uses 43 blocks and I have about XXX "filler" blocks that I need to make. They are blocks assembled with postage stamps orphan blocks collected in a swap I was part of few years ago. I loved their scrappyness but could never do anything with them... now they are the perfect fillers... except that I need to add a border on each of them so that they reach the correct size (and I still need to make some extras).
So my goal for April is to complete all those blocks! I don't think I will assemble them as a quilt top, but who knows! I want to set myself up for success so let's just focus on the blocks first!!
--
How about you? What are YOU up to?
a very interesting project you have going on. I have read some of his books but not all
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot going on! Good luck with all the stitching and reaching your April Goal!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading "On Writing" by Stephen King. It provided insightful commentary on his writing style and unique themes. Your bookshelf quilt is a creative way to honor his milestone birthday.
ReplyDeleteThanks!! For sure it will be a nice way to honor a milestone birthday... I hope the milestone is 70 or 80 and not 100 (even if I wish him a good and long life) :) thanks for stopping by!!
DeleteYou have set yourself quite a challenge there! I am in the midst of revealing my A to Z quilt - one block at a time over April. It was going to be a moderate quilt but 25 12" blocks with a 5 5 setting (and one on the back) plus sashing, plus borders it ended up HUGE. I hope you come up with a great quilt (you can always make it double sided - I often piece the back of mine to get more bang for my buck) Wht you have shown looks great. I set myself monthly goals - inspired initially by Sandy from Quilting for the rest of us - and have been linking up with OMG. its so great to have goals to strive for. And I know the frustration of secret sewing... you can't post pictures of progress
ReplyDeleteBlocks as a goal is good! Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and good luck on your project!
ReplyDeleteHi Alida, you really are a super duper fan. Well done!
ReplyDeleteYour projects are wonderful! I think your Stephen King project is amazing! Just reading about the 70273 project..... I just learned of it here, I'm definitely going to participate! Such inspiration.
ReplyDelete