Week 1: Final Finishes

This summer, I am working my way through my fabric drawer storage system, trying to clear out space, and make some quilt tops. Today, I'll show you what I made in Week 1, and give you a preview of Week 2!

The designer of the week was Sanae (Moda Fabrics). I had three collections stuffed in three drawers: Panache, Oz and Arcadia. I started with Arcadia because I was also working on a commission quilt from this collection. For that one, I used my Hip to Be Square pattern (note: picture was taken before I assembled the top!)

One of the bonuses of this project is that it gives me a chance to try out some new patterns. Usually when I'm scrap quilting, my go-to pattern is either patchwork squares or a coins quilt, but I decided to flip through some quilt books and branch out. Since I had a bunch of leftover charm squares and honeybun strips, I decided to make the Square One quilt from Camille Roskelly's book Simplify. It was the perfect pattern for my scraps, and very easy to put together.

After making that quilt, I still had some miscellaneous pieces, so the blocks in this next quilt were inspired by another quilt in the book, Sweet Pea. I made the blocks a slightly different dimension, and changed the setting (the setting was actually based on Camille's Piece of Cake pattern!). This photo was also taken before the final assembly!

I had never made a plus quilt, even though I've had it on my must-make list for quite a while. This next quilt was inspired by the Dream Big quilt in Simplfy, except I used larger pieces. It worked really well for my Panache scraps -- I just kept cutting and building from the center out until it was the desired size. Then, I used most of my remaining fabrics to piece a scrappy backing for when I'm ready to quilt it.

I was a little stumped when it came to the Oz fabrics. I had a lot of partial jelly roll strips, so I used the Happy-Go-Lucky quilt in Simplify as inspiration. I decided to make all the block centers the same (or at least mostly the same -- some are orange, and some are red) and make only the A blocks.

For the final quilt, I used a basic snowball block (although if I'd made the quilt Coming Home from Simplify, I would have only needed two corner triangles per block!)

So after six quilt tops, I am down to a single drawer:

The two empty drawers now hold some newer fabrics that were waiting for an open spot!

So what's on the agenda for Week 2?

Two drawers of fabric by Chez Moi. I'll stop by mid-week with a progress report!

 

Summer Sewing Series Week 1 Progress Report

I thought I'd share some progress on my Summer 2015 Blog Series. Each week, I'll be tackling a different designer's fabrics with the hope of using up some loose ends and clearing up some space in my fabric drawers.

This week, I am working on three drawers of fabrics by Moda designer Sanae. I started with Arcadia and made blocks for three separate quilts. I hope to assemble those tops tomorrow!

Next, I worked on Panache. I had quite a bit of this line, even though it was not one of my favorites. I decided to make a plus quilt, since I've always wanted to make one!

Since I didn't have any large pieces for a backing, I pieced together the leftovers to make this scrappy backing:

I already have one drawer emptied out, and tonight I'll be working on the last collection (Oz) to see if I can empty out a second drawer.

I'm looking forward to sharing the before and after pics of the drawers, as well as the finished tops, on Sunday!

 

Big Finish, Little Finish

This week, I have two finishes to share:

Big Finish: A 60 x 120 Arcadia quilt (over 1900 pieces!) for an Etsy customer.

Little Finish: A scarf (made out of leftover Honey Honey strips) for me!

I love them both!

Linking up with Amanda Jean's Finish it up Friday.

 

Stash Hoarding, Day 1: Arcadia

Last week, I promised to do a series of posts on my top five fabric collections to hoard. All of these are out-of-print, and I seem to be unable to resist them when I find a good deal online! What is even worse is that I seem to only be able to use them if I have "back-up" fabric!

The first collection to showcase is Arcadia by Sanae for Moda Fabrics. This one is special to me because it became my "test quilt" when I decided to start selling quilts on Etsy three years ago. I had just been to a very unsuccessful craft fair and realized that these events were just too unpredictable to be worthwhile, especially for trying to sell higher priced items such as quilts. As it happened, I had a new nephew who needed a crib quilt, and a layer cake of Arcadia on hand to play with. I designed a pattern to make the best use of a layer cake, which became the prototype for the Hip to Be Square quilts I started selling in my shop. Although it took about a month to make a sale, business has grown steadily since then!

I just love the colors and designs in this collection. Actually, I'm not really a huge fan of any other Sanae fabric line -- this one is just particularly appealing to me. Since the first quilt was given to my nephew, I didn't make one for my store until I came across another Arcadia layer cake later that year. It sold fairly quickly, and prompted a request from another customer for a custom order. I couldn't find any other layer cakes to remake the original, but I did find a few honey buns (1 1/2 " strip rolls) and made this version:

Since I couldn't find enough fabric for a backing, I had to improvise by using a coordinating Sandy Gervais print, but I included a few extra Arcadia blocks on the back to tie it all together. I love the way the back turned out! I think it really suits the modern look of the collection.

This was also the quilt that prompted the hoarding of the collection! Since then, I have collected other pieces, including a couple of charm packs, a layer cake, honey buns, and even a fat quarter bundle! I have plenty of fabric to make several other quilts -- I just seem to fear running out! I do plan to make another Hip to Be Square quilt in the near future, and I have a pattern in mind for the honey buns as well. I really do try not to overpay for these finds, however -- I think that's why I have to snatch them up, and why it is so difficult to subsequently cut into them!

 

Tune in tomorrow for my next blog entry about stash hoarding!