Friday Finish - Technicolor Galaxy

A long time ago, in a life that seems far, far away, I received an incredible birthday gift. Himself gave me the Skill Builder BOM 2015 course, the printed templates, AND The fabric kit. Heaven! And now 20 months later, Technicolor Galaxy is finished. Epic.

The greys of the Halifax waterfront seemed the perfect foil for this bit of rainbow madness.

I thought about taking pics of each and every spoke up close...

But there were limits to the attention spans of the toddlers who accompanied me on this mission!

I love the back of this quilt as much as the front. I wish there were an easy way to display both sides at once!

The quilting (as always) shows so well on the back!

And then there's the binding. Twelve different lovely Konas matched to the spokes of the quilt. I'm so glad I went with my own idea of rainbow instead of white. I think it really adds to the quilt

Wasn't it nice of the French navy to provide me with this lovely backdrop?

 

The Deets  

Title: Technicolor Galaxy
Size: 60 by 60 inches
Konas Used in Top: Breakers, Cardinal, Carrot, Cerise, Corn Yellow, Crimson, Deep Blue, Emerald, Flame, Grasshopper, Heliotrope, Lapis, Lime, Pacific, Peacock, Persimmon, Purple, Sangria, School Bus, Silver, Spruce, Rich Red, Wasabi, White, Yarrow
Konas Used in Back: Azure, Banana, Berry, Bonsai, Breakers, Brt Peri, Cardinal, Carrot, Cerise, Chartreuse, Copen, Corn Yellow, Crimson, Curry, Cyan, Goldfish, Grasshopper, Hibiscus, Jungle, Lapis, Kumquat, Red, Rich Red, Riviera, Tangerine, Tomato, Turquoise, Pacific, Peapod, Persimmon, School Bus, Ultramarine, Wasabi, White, Wisteria

Konas Used in Binding: Breakers, Brt Peri, Cardinal, Corn Yellow, Flame, Grasshopper, Heliotrope, Lapis, Lime, Pacific, Peacock, Persimmon, Rich Red, Sangria
Quilting: Free motion and straight line quilt as you go

You can read more about this unbelievable quilt adventure by checking out these posts. Set aside a few hours! ☺

Getting Started & Colour Wheel

Colour Wheel Continued

Piecing Star Points and Making the Colour Wheel

Quilting the Colour Wheel & Starpoints

Piecing the Scattered Geese

Piecing the Piano Keys

Piecing the Arrowheads 

Quilting the Scattered Geese, Piano Keys, & Arrowheads

Piecing the Flower Hexies - Part 1

Piecing the Flower Hexies - Part 2

Piecing the Orange Peels

Piecing the Moons

Quilting of Flower Hexies, Moons, & Orange Peels and Construction of Improv Star Corners

Trimming and Assembly

More Assembly

Wanna make your own? Head on over to Pile o Fabric and buy the course. Heck, buy the kit. And get ready for a wild skill building ride. If you stick to the monthly schedule, it's all very doable!

And that's that.

J

P.S. I'm linking up today with Finish Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts, as well as TGIFF @ Busy Hands Quilts. Pop on over and see some more fab finishes.

P.P.S Many thanks to my very talented quilt holder, Ms Kelka!

WIP Wednesday - Where does the time go?

Ack. I've become one of THOSE bloggers. You know, the ones that don't post forever and then kvetch about it? Well, I'm skipping the kvetching and going straight to what I've been working on. Every once in a while the stars align and I have both the time and the energy to sew!

When last I shared about this epic WIP, Technicolor Galaxy, I was assembling the already quilted curved blocks into spokes. I have to admit that I've shown more on Instagram than I have on the blog about this one. If you're interested, you can follow me at A_Quarter_Inch_From_The_Edge. No pressure. Getting those seams just right was a royal PITA. But I got 'er done!

Honestly, I think I measured the center about... well... a thousand times. I was so afraid I'd make a mistake and end up with a centre medallion that was too small to fit in the hole in the quilt. The stuff of nightmares. Thankfully, my "measure a dozen times, cut once" strategy worked. And my freezer paper template worked beautifully.

 Nerve wracking. But here is that (very first block) centre medallion all cut out and ready to go.

All that remained was to make some more bias binding and get that medallion in place! It was a tedious business, but being so close to the end kept me motivated!

As if there wasn't enough in this quilt, I opted to forego the suggested white binding and went for a matched rainbow one. I was a little fiddly, but I think it's worth it in the end!

I can't help but tease you a little here. But I will say that you won't have to wait much longer to see the finished creation.

I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts. It's been a while! And stay with me people, there's a big finish coming this Friday!

J

WIP Wednesday - Turning up the volume!

In my attempts to avoid napping when DT does (I've got to break that habit before I go back to school!), I've been spending the afternoons at the machine. It's given me lots of time to piece sixteen patch blocks for that massive low volume project I've got going. When you get 1450 2½ inch squares in the mail, even a basic project gets complicated!

I've started making two other kinds of blocks. A four patch in a square and a square in a square. I'm hoping to use lots of those 2½ inch squares from my Birthday Bonus Club haul, but I want to break things up a little too!

This one is really a pieced block! Don't look too closely at those 2½ inch strips that make up the outer square! This is what comes of not measuring (and being too lazy to take apart a block to redo it)!

45 of 132 done! I'm aiming for a queen size...

If that wasn't enough, I reached a major milestone with the assembly of Technicolor Galaxy (a.k.a the neverending BOM). After completing six of twelve spokes, I was sidelined by bias binding production. No matter how I looked at it, I couldn't get the fancy version I used last time to work. Screw it. I just those strips on the 45 and sewed them up. I've built my skills. I need to finish this thing!

In the same vein, I decided to ditch the glue basting for this assembly session. It works, but it's fiddly and time consuming. I've proven to myself that I can do it. Now I'm breaking out the Wonderclips!

 Did the world end? Nope. And I cut my assembly time down to 10 minutes a spoke!

Et voilà! All twelve spokes are assembled! Next step is to make some straight grain binding to join the spokes. Can I get this done for the end of September and achieve one of my FAL 2016 Q3 goals? Fingers crossed!

I'm linking up today with Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts, as well as Midweek Makers @ Quilt Fabrications. Pop on over and see what others are working on this week!

J

WIP Wednesday - Because quilting doesn't suck...

Some days I get a little down on myself. So I decided to do more activities that don't suck in an effort to bolster my mood. Given that quilting doesn't suck, I've been doing as much of it as I can for the past few days. It's amazing what one can do when they get in the studio for an hour or two!

After last week's jaunt to Lunenburg, I couldn't resist getting started on my version of The Lunenburg Makery's Row by Row quilt. I kept the yellow and light blue from the kit, but subbed in some Konas: Medium Gray, Silver, and Prussian.

 I love this little fishing stage and it came together quite quickly!

There's always that point in paper piecing when you think, "Oh. This is going so smoothly. Look at me... paper piecing rockstar!" And then you do this. Grab the seam ripper.

I found a dory! Hee hee hee. For those of you not from Nova Scotia, these little boats are called dories. They're a classic style here in Nova Scotia. They even have races with them in lovely little Lunenburg Harbour. It's a big deal!

And since I've finally embraced a shortened stitch length for paper piecing, the paper came off like a dream!

I also made a pile of progress on the doll quilt to go with the recent baby doll basket for DT's Sam & Stella.

And I worked away on my low volume 16 patches... or were they 25 patches? Apparently I should have looked at my previous blocks before making more! *Update - they definitely should have been 16 patch... grab the seam ripper again!*

Setting my Q3 goals for the 2016 Finish-A-Long was also a kick in the pants in the WIP department. If I ever want to finish my Technicolor Galaxy, I actually have to work on it. Go figure. After tidying my studio, ironing my freshly washed purchases, shuffling my WIP cubby... okay, flat out procrastinating... I finally got down to work.

 Getting these first two together felt momentous!

 And I felt downright triumphant when I got to this point!

 As of this afternoon,  I had six of twelve spokes of the wheel done. Yay me!

Here's hoping I can keep up this level of productivity! I'm linking up today with the lovely Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social, as well as with the Canadian Needle and Thread Network. I'm also trying out a new (to me) link-up, Midweek Makers @ Quilt Fabrications. If you pop back on Friday, you'll see a finish of one of these projects and you can link up your own finishes as I host TGIFF! Hope to see you then!

J

2016 Finish-A-Long - Q3 Goals!

It's that time again... goal setting! After jumping on the 2016  Finish-A-Long just in time for Quarter 2, I found it very motivating. Here's hoping Quarter 3 is no different!

Goal 1 - Technicolor Galaxy

Last quarter, my goal was to get up to date on my Skill Builder BOM Technicolor Galaxy. Check! This time, I want/need to get this puppy assembled and bound. For reals. It's been long enough and I want my design wall back!

Goal 2 - Cotton + Steel Christmas Quilt

This one might seem a little familiar.  Yup, it was a goal last quarter too. But this time I'm really going to get it done. Part of my hang-up is how to quilt it. Suggestions are more than welcome!

Goal 3 - Selvage Challenge

I'm going to turn my pile of rainbow selvage blocks into something fabulous for Stash Builder Box's Selvage Challenge. The challenge runs from July 5th to September 25th (perfect for Q3) and all you have to do to enter is post your project on Instagram (yup... I've succumbed to the temptation) using #selvagechallenge.


Goal 4 - Paper pieced hexies

I made one of these awesome wee hexies during my May is for Makers mania. Must. Make. More. And turn them into something! I should set a goal to use a few of those lovely patterns I bought!

Goal 5 - Advent Calendar

 

Speaking of which! I started buying wool felt for this mega project just last week. Can I get it done for the end of September? It's a big goal, but I'm gonna give it a try!

I'm linking up with the goal setting post for Quarter 3 of the 2016 Finish-A-Long.

J

Technicolor Galaxy - Time has come...

To start putting this thing together! Lesson 11 was released a few weeks back and I really, really want to complete my Technicolor Galaxy quilt. I'm at a year and half of work here. The time has come!

Before any assembly could begin, a LOT of trimming had to happen...
  Trimmings make me happy...

 So happy...

 The bin is almost full!

Okay... those might not be interesting pics to you. But taking them might allow me to let go of these scraps instead of hoarding them due to prettiness.

The trimming took a long, long time. The freezer paper templates used for the batting and backing had to be trimmed down and ironed to each and every block. Yikes. Wish I could have done that as the blocks were finished, but I was too chicken to do so without the instructor's full explanation!
A weird angle, but the best light I managed to snag! All trimmed except the centre medallion. That's not done until the spokes are joined. I love it, but I want it off my design wall.

With all the blocks trimmed, I had to bite the bullet and start making the bias binding. It was so tempting to just do it the way I've done it in the past, but hell... this is a skill builder, right? So I followed Alyssa's directions to the letter!
So much marking.... and pinning!

Sewing this strange tube was, well.... strange. But I followed the directions, so it's gotta work, right?

Sharp scissors and an ability to follow the pencil lines = a magical pile of bias binding! Now I just need to make another batch... and two batches of straight grain binding. It's a long, long process this assembly!


I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts. The lovely Lorna had a slew of giveaways for the last 10 days. She's so generous!

J

P.S. This was one of my goals for Q2 of the 2016 Finish Along.

WIP Wednesday - Gettin' er done!

I've been keeping you in suspense, haven't it? Not much word on my progress on Technicolor Galaxy lately. But there's been a tonne in recent weeks! I did a pile of quilting at the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild Retreat - including these Flower Hexie blocks.

 Moons. Do those little circles look like craters to you? They're meant to!

 Easier to see the quilting from the back a lot of times!

 Orange Peels...

Next up, some wonky star blocks. I love working with the low volumes in this quilt. I'm already plotting my next low volume project. It's a doozy. More on that another day.

 I know Dena @ No Frickin' Blog Yet will recognize that Carolyn Friedlander print in the centre position.

Aren't they lovely? I considered altering the quilt layout to have different colours in the corner blocks, but these ones are just so cheerful.

Once the stars were complete, there was a tonne of improv style piecing of low volume strips and bits of various sizes to produce the rest of the corner block. Did I take any pictures of that process? Apparently not. And it took hours and hours. But the final result? Lovely. The bright blue corner has the most variation in value. But it works. I think.

I could show them all, but I'll keep it to two colours! After I finished these blocks, I had the very satisfying task of integrating all my Technicolor Galaxy colured fabric into my stash.

The only thing that I don't like about these corner star blocks is all the parts I had to piece and then cut off. I've tucked the trimmings away for a little something. Maybe a zipper pouch?

With the corner stars done and dusted, it was on to the last set of blocks - centre blocks. So many 2½ inch strips! I started to run out of places to put them on my small workspace.

Once the strips were pieced (staggering them with precision), the template was lined up with the seamlines and the excess trimmed away. It gave my such satisfaction to iron on this last template. There were SO many in this project!

Et voilà! One of eight blocks done. They're not fancy, but they don't need to be. This quilt has a LOT going on. 
My supply of low volume wasn't quite up to the task of finishing these blocks, so each one has a pieced strip (except, apparently, the one I pictured above... which I didn't know until I wrote this post!). I'm going to consider them a unique touch to make this BOM a little more my own.

And here we are! All the blocks are pieced! It's not the greatest pic, but it's getting hard to get far enough away to get it all in. It will be 60 by 60 inches and I have no early idea what I'm going to do with it.

The corners and centres are layered and ready to quilt. Yay! Once they're quilted, I will have completed 5 of my 6 goals in Q2 of Finish ALong 2016. Not too shabby, especially considering I have until the end of June. ☺

I'm linking up with The (Canadian) Needle and Thread Network, as well as with Let's Be Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts. Pop on over and see what others are working on this week!

J