Wednesday, January 9, 2019

A Revealing Feeling - Good Fortune, Parts 7 and 8


Bonnie Hunter revealed the full design of the Good Fortune Quilt this week after surprising us with Clue 7 a few days earlier. It's stunning. It's wonderful. I feel so fortunate to be a part of this quilt-along.

But, I now have a lot of work to do. I have to finish Clues 1-7. Then I can start on the two blocks and four borders described in The Reveal. Bonnie's finished quilt looks amazing. I am really motivated to press ahead and finish mine, but it will have to wait until I get back from my next trip.

I did a tiny fraction of Clue 7. This involved making lots of double pieces by sewing two pieces from Clue 2 together. In addition, we have to make a small number of quad pieces made with pieces from Clue 2. Here are some of the quad pieces:
Clue 7 also called for making some quad pieces with pieces from Clue 1.

Clue 7 went a little faster because there was no cutting involved, but I did make another trip to a fabric store this week, and that took up some time.

Now, before I go on, I want to talk about a New Thing. During this quilt I started listening to podcasts. That's a New Thing for me. I'm really enjoying it. My daughter recommended Serial, so I started with that. Then I added Lexicon Valley, because I love words and linguistics. Then I found a few more interesting ones. Then I got the idea that there might be podcasts about quilting, and I found several! These are some that looked interesting:
  •  Quilting . . . . for the rest of us
  •  Sit & Sew Radio
  •  The Off-Kilter Quilt
  •  Just Wanna Quilt
These quilting podcasts are not professionally produced (I assume) but they are something fun to listen to while I am quilting. Do you have any favorite podcasts?

OK, back to the Good Fortune Quilt. I didn't have a lot of time to work on it this week. I couldn't do much without finishing some of the previous clues, so the first thing I did was to finish Clue 1 completely. Then I decided to make one sample each of the two blocks shown in the Reveal. 
 
Here they are:
The Spinning Star Block


The String Chain Block


These blocks alternate in the finished quilt in a checkerboard pattern and the result is wonderful. I like the Spinning Star Block a lot. I'm not so sure about the String Chain Block. I don't think the red and orange work well together. There is not enough contrast for me. However, I think (hope) that when it is all put together and viewed from a few feet away it will look fine.

Please take a look at Bonnie's Link-Up page and check out some of the finished blocks (and even finished quilt-tops!!) that other people have done. It is so much fun to look at them.

Lessons Learned:
  • If you can't sew with friends, sew with podcasts.
  • Procrastination has its rewards. I only had to make 192 pieces for Clue 1, not the 240 originally specified.
  • Doing sample blocks to start is probably a good idea. The blocks are supposed to be the same size. It turns out my String Chain Block is almost 1/4" larger than the Spinning Star, which is the correct size. I need to think about this before I do any more work with the String Chain Blocks or the components thereof.
  • There is treasure at the end of the rainbow! Just be patient and follow it.
 

4 comments:

  1. All your blocks look good, and it is going to be a pretty quilt.

    There are a few podcasts I enjoy, but some that drive me crazy. I don't enjoy the ones where people just ramble on without a plan of what they will talk about. I like a more professional, scripted show.

    If you love words, you might enjoy "The Allusionist", or "Lingthusiasm". If you really want to get into English, "The History of English" is a massive undertaking that could keep you listening for months to catch up with it.

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    1. Thanks for the podcast suggestions. I will check them out.

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  2. This looks good so far; I like your mix of fabrics. I haven't made many blocks either, but I find that from a distance the red and orange merge and become a staircase, or even a pagoda (at a pinch). I don't have any podcast suggestions for you, but look online in the app store - there are thousands, on all topics under the sun.

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  3. https://quiltfiction.com/category/episodes/

    Quilt Fiction is a great serial podcast going on ....

    https://nonniequiltingdreams.wordpress.com/2017/04/23/revised-list-of-quilting-podcasts-april-2017/
    .
    This is my list of quilting podcast ... plus some extras .....
    .
    .

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