Mon Début - En Provence Part Six (#1)

It's been a while since I have posted. I have been quilting a little, and I have been traveling a lot. I think I am just going to start from here and move forward and not worry about trying to fill in the "missing" posts from the past.

I had another Sewing Day, and it was so much fun. I invited several people to come over and sew with me. It was just what I needed to get back into a sewing frame of mind.

I have been dying to work on Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt, En Provence. I was in Europe for Weeks One through Four and all I could do was read the clues that were published each week.

I was back home for Week Five, but I had not had a chance to buy the fabric. I am not a person with a large stash, so a project like this requires a lot of shopping. I made one trip to a quilt shop right after I got home and got a few pieces of fabric. I naively thought I could get all of my fabric there because I knew exactly what I wanted. The only problem was the fabric in my mind's eye was not in the quilt shop.

A few days later I went to some quilt shops with Susan. One shop was closed. 😞 Three were open and I found more fabric, but I still didn't have enough.  (At some point during this expedition I lost my clip-on FitBit.😧) 

You have to go around to all of the quilt shops and see what is there, then you sometimes have to go back to buy fabric after you have seen everything. So, after Susan and I had hit two shops we decided to go to the one I had already been to. I did find a couple of additional fabrics on my second visit there.

The next day I broke down and went to Jo-Ann's. I found a handful of prints that I could use. Some of them were not good quality fabric, but I have been everywhere in town. It's often a choice between good fabric quality vs. colors and prints that I like.

So here we are at Week Six and I am just joining the party. Here is a link to the party: Bonnie Hunter's Link-up

Here are my fabrics.

The colors

The neutrals

As I did last year, I will be making a half-size version of the quilt.

I had no trouble making the units for Week Six. I used Bonnie Hunter's new Essential Triangle Tool . It worked great. I like it better than the Marti Michell templates. It is easier to use because you are working with a large tool rather than a small template. You don't have to press so hard and it doesn't slip on you.

Week Six units

I did not remember to take photos of the all the projects that got worked on during my Sewing Day, but they were all impressive.
  Barbara (Our Third Thirds) made these clever wine glass coasters for her book club:


Lesson learned:
Sewing is better with friends

Stelle D'Oro

When I started Allietare! I didn't know where it was going. It's a mystery quilt, after all. All I knew was that it would be a full-size bed quilt.

My plan was to make the finished piece half the size called for. I would make half the number of pieces specified in each week's instructions.

If I make half the number of pieces, I will end up with a half-size quilt, right?

[Sidebar: Bonnie Hunter, the quilt designer, has requested that participants in the mystery quilt-along not post certain details, such as piece counts, to our blogs. She wants to be able to sell the pattern on her website after the quilt-along is over, and I think that's only fair. So I am not going to go into the details of how many of each type of square I thought I would need. (However, Bonnie has encouraged us to show our progress and link back to her website. Here is the link to Bonnie's blog: Mystery Monday Link-Up, The Reveal!)]

The day of the "Reveal" arrived and the finishing instructions were posted. The finished quilt has gold star blocks and  red blocks, set on point, without framing or sashing. 


Because of the absence of framing, it is something of an optical illusion when the blocks are put together. You can look at the gold star blocks, or you can look at the red blocks, but you can't look at both at the same time. If you try, you will see white squares that don't exist on either block.

Just to be clear, I appreciate the lack of framing. It's a lot less work. And I have always enjoyed optical illusions.

I confidently calculated that, as the final quilt had x gold blocks and y red blocks, I would need to make x/2 gold blocks and y/2 red blocks for my half-size quilt. How easy is that?

Very shortly thereafter I embarked on a 10-week trip.
Fast forward to my return and my resumption of this project. I looked at Bonnie's diagram and tried to imagine what half of her quilt would look like. 

I imagined my smaller quilt vertically. I imagined it horizontally.  It seemed too skinny for its length, so I imagined it with an extra row of red blocks and I imagined it with an extra row of gold blocks and I imagined it with an extra row of each. I looked at the pattern until my eyes crossed. I got faked out by the optical illusion. I couldn't "see" that the setting blocks were roughly equivalent to half of a red block. I convinced myself that Plan A wasn't going to work.

I wanted to be able to make the quilt without having to cut any blocks in half. I decided I could approximate the proper proportions by adding an extra row of red squares and I came up with something that was about 64% the size of the original quilt. I calculated how many extra squares I would need to make. Carry on with Plan B.


I started to write this blog post to explain my process for reducing the size of the quilt. At that point, I had completed 19 7/8 gold blocks and I planned to finish the 7/8-of-a-block piece later that day. I only needed to sew one more seam, and it would go fast. (Why didn't I just do it the previous night? It got hidden behind my machine, and when I realized that, I was too tired to keep going.)

Well, it turns out that quilt math may not be that simple. I needed to think some more about how to do this without having to cut blocks in half to make the size come out right.

The Aha! Moment

Wait a minute. Wait just a minute. Let me take a close look at Bonnie's layout. Aha!

Somehow I got confused between the finished blocks and the setting blocks, which are basically half red blocks with a little extra piece. I thought (mistakenly) that I would not be able to avoid cutting a set of red blocks in half to reduce the layout.

But not really! The design was such an optical illusion that it fooled me. I will be substituting setting blocks for blocks cut in half. So I can make the down-sized quilt any size I want!

Here is a segment of the final layout. Maybe now you can see why I had problems and why I was fooled by the setting blocks.

Even though I had already made 19 and 7/8 gold squares (out of 20 needed), with my new understanding I elected to go back to Plan A and make a quilt that is literally "half-size". (Curiously, this will somehow require slightly FEWER than half the number of blocks needed for the full-size quilt. I counted carefully on the actual layout diagram. Four times.)

It's exponentially harder to manhandle a larger quilt through my machine for the quilting portion of the project, so this is really good news. My new insight into how to make the quilt saved me 9 blocks over Plan B. And it saves me 2 blocks over Plan A. That is the true mystery of this quilt.  How can it be exactly half the size of the full quilt, yet have fewer than half the number of blocks?

Sure, I have extra gold star squares now, but I can pick and choose among them when I do the layout. And, the really good news is I only have to make ONE more red square. I even have the sections for this already done, so it's just a matter of sewing 9 sections together. Yipee!

I definitely learned something from this, but I'm not sure what. But I do know that it was when I tried to explain this in writing for this blog that I was forced to really think it through and that is what enabled me to find the solution.

Now, let's see how many setting blocks I need . . . .

Lessons learned:

• Do not work on anything involving an optical illusion late at night.
• Do not look at the blocks in a vacuum. The setting blocks are important, too.
• If you are confused, try to explain it in writing. 
• Do not overthink it. 

Note: It was hard to write this piece in a way that would be understandable without using specific numbers and without showing photos that would give away too many of Bonnie's proprietary details. So, naturally, I blogcrastinated.  I am finishing this up about three months late. I have now sewn all the blocks together and added the border. I have several blogs in my head that I hope to write.

Spring-ish Cleaning

I have been traveling - A LOT - so I haven't done much (any) quilting.

What I am going to write about today is not quilting, but it is something that is part of every quilter's life: Getting Organized. I am in the process of cleaning out our basement (and some other places that collect "stuff"), and when I got to some shelves that held fabric and yarn and UFO's, I knew what I had to do.

I worked for an hour or so at at time over several days. Every time I though I was done I would find another box or bag or pile. Now I am done. At least, I feel done. I want to be done.

So. Here are some photos.

For the Garage Sale

I put all my small scraps in a couple of gallon bags. Somebody will want these - I hope. They are going to be $1 per bag. I am also "letting go of" a stack of 8" squares I bought in Hawaii (at Hilo Hattie's). They are really mostly white and I don't think I'll ever do anything with them. $1. And I have two packages of 4" square samples from Benartex. I don't like them that much. Somebody will like them. $1 each.

I sorted the medium scraps by color and folded them into 6" squares and put stacks of them into quart-size bags. $1 per bag?  I put a bunch of loose pieces of elastic, ribbon, seam binding and so on into another bag. I put some surplus pins, hooks and eyes, jingles bells, and other stuff into another bag. I'm thinking 25¢ per bag, maybe 10¢.



The random scraps are unusual fabrics such as rip-stop nylon, spandex, pleather, minky fabric, etc. They are fairly small pieces, so $1 for the whole stack. I had some fairly large pieces that I will mark as $1 each. Next, a frame for basting a quilt using little plastic things that are similar to the plastic pieces used for price tags. I didn't like it that much. Someone who is not as particular as me and values speed will like it. $1. Finally, a bag of large and medium scraps of Michael Miller's Fairy Frost, as well as some other sparkly fabrics, all color coordinated in blues, whites, and silver, for $2. A bargain!
 

Some yarn. Fifty cents each for the Red Heart, one dollar each for the wool and novelty yarns.
 

Comments on my proposed pricing?

Stuff to Keep

Yay! The rest of my stuff is Organized now!  With a capital "O". And not a moment too soon. I found one kit that I had bought twice. I don't think that will happen again, now that everything I have is in one place.

There are six unfinished quilts in this tub. All are bed size. Also in the bin: all the fabric and instructions that go with each quilt.


On the left, quilt patterns. On the right, at least 12 unfinished small projects or unstarted kits for small projects, plus one almost-finished lap quilt. (On the lap quilt I decided to rip out the machine quilting I had done on about 25% of the quilt because I really didn't do a good job. I need more practice. But some of the stitches ended up being very tiny and it is not an easy job.)
 

There is also a big tub, not shown, half full of fabric I want to keep. Most of it is in large pieces. Last but not least, four unfinished yarn projects, occupying five bags. All are afghans or throws. That's about all I ever knit or crochet.
 

The "Allietare!" project will be left out in my sewing area because I will be working on it now that I am Organized.
 

The Unraveled Traveler
 
And here's a little about my big trip. (If you want to read a lot about it, go to this link: The Traveling Blogcrastinator.)

This is what I worked on on the trip. It's much more portable than quilting. I can't say what it is going to be because it is a surprise.


And here is some Maori-themed fabric I bought in New Zealand. I need to think about how to use it. Any ideas?

Finalmente! - Allietare Week Six Plus

While I was on a trip, Bonnie Hunter released the reveal for Allietare. I like it a lot.  I think this quilt probably looks better as a scrappy quilt than as the kind that's not scrappy. (Is there a name for the non-scrappy kind?) I base this on the diagrams in Bonnie's instructions, which show solid color pieces so that you will know where to place your various colored prints.

I can't show you Bonnie's work or the work of others because the quilt-along is over now. You can buy the pattern from Bonnie's Shop.

The (practically) final step of Allietare is putting all of the little pieces from weeks 1-5 together into 10 1/2" blocks. There are two kinds of blocks that need to be made: gray blocks and gold blocks. To make the full size quilt, you need a total of 50 blocks. Since I am making a half-size quilt, I thought I could make it with 25 blocks. (Or fewer. I'm not sure how that would work mathematically, but I was hoping for a happy surprise. It's a mystery quilt, after all.)

Cutting blocks in half to make both sides even is not an option because of the way the quilt is designed. 

So, without the help of a calculator, computer program, or app, I determined that I am going to have to bump my "half-size" quilt up from 50% to 64%. It means I have to end up with a total of 32 blocks. Sigh. . .  I hope I don't run out of fabric.

Meanwhile, I was too impatient to relive Weeks 1 through 5 seven more times, so I forged ahead with the final blocks.

Here is what four of them look like:

See how the scrappiness gives it so much more texture? I really like it.

I had a Sewing Day and invited a few friends over. We had a good time sewing and talking and giving advice to each other.  Susan worked on a baby quilt. Barbara worked on the rescue of an old, well-loved quilt. Marilyn worked on a kuspuk.

 

Hooray for Susan! She finished the baby quilt. Isn't it fabulous?

Me? I worked on my blocks. I now have a total of 12 done. They go a little more slowly than the earlier pieces because you have to be careful with all the points. Twenty to go. And then the setting triangles. And then the border.

I have to start thinking about the backing and about how I'm going to quilt this. . . .