Autumn Woods - a finish, finally

I'm so happy I didn't give up on this fabric.  It took several tries, and a lot of contemplation,  but I finally came up with a good pattern for my Autumn Woods fabric.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 186

The focus fabric is Autumn Woods by Kate and Birdie for Moda

The background fabric is Reflect by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman.

The pattern was inspired by High Surf in the Blue book by Vanessa Christenson.

It finished at 68" x 68"

It has approximately 1,232 pieces

The background fabric is printed on Essex Linen.  I love the look of the two different textures, the linen alongside the quilting cotton, and it was very easy to work with.  I prewashed the fabric and it didn't shrink or wrinkle.

It is heavier than the quilting cotton, and hard to press open.  I couldn't get the sharp creases that I'm used to when working only with quilting cotton, I lost quite a few points because the fabric wouldn't press as flat, due to the bulk.  It may be better suited for bags, pillows, and seat cushions.

Here is the pattern that I started with.  The pattern has large, medium and small half square triangle units.

I added more medium sized hsts and played around with their placement to get a different look.  It's hard to go wrong when you're playing with hsts.  I use the Easy Angle when piecing my units, cut them a tad bit large, and square them up.

I continue to use my project scraps to make Village houses, here's 3 more, a nice addition for Fall.

It's almost the end of the year and I almost have enough houses for my 2016 Village project.  I love it when a plan comes together.

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Up next . . . . .

This is what is on my design wall right now, the  makings of a Summerville-ish quilt.

I made Summerville as a shop sample last November, and enjoyed every minute, but didn't think I would ever be piecing a second one.  Well earlier this year I donated my Snapshots quilt to my hometown library for a raffle.  I told the library if they raised $1,000  I would donate another quilt  next year.  They were very enthusiastic with their ticket sales, that quit was on display for a week in every bank in town in addition to the library, it even made it on tv.  They raised nearly 3 times my $1000 goal, so now I'm piecing another raffle quilt.

It's hard to pick a project for a raffle, I want it to be something I'll enjoy piecing, but not so much that I'll want to keep it, plus I think fabric that appeals to many along with an unique pattern are also important.  So I'm piecing another Summerville with a few additions to make it a bigger quilt.  Fingers crossed it all works out, and is done by 9/21, the last official day of Summer.

I wouldn't mind finishing my raffle quilt even sooner, I have a list of Fall projects that I'm eager to start.  One project I would like to finish is something, anything, made with this Kate and Birdie family of fabric called Autumn Woods.

I've started two different projects but didn't like how they were coming together so as of now all my pieces, scraps, strips and squares are in this project box, waiting for me to find a project that does please me.  This fabric is amazing, it shouldn't be this hard to find a good project for it.  I may just make a bunch of hsts and throw them on my design wall, how could that possibly go wrong?

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Noticeable Progress - Woo Hoo

So while I've been spending my days getting my house clean and back in order, for the most part I've just felt like I was moving dust and boxes with little noticeable progress, until now.

As soon as my design wall was up I cut and hung the borders for my Autumn Woods project.   

The tree print is the top and bottom border and the sides are the background print with the floating leaves.  My idea has always been to piece geese blocks that look like the geese flying between the trees.  I couldn't exactly see it in my mind so getting the borders on my design wall was a big help to me. 

Now I'm just filling in the space between the borders with geese.  Seeing the geese blocks on my design wall makes me feel like I'm finally making progress.

I have almost everything unpacked from my old sewing room.  I'm down to two boxes, boxes I filled when I didn't know what to do with the item when I unpacked the original boxes.  My goal is to find a place for at least 6 items in the boxes everyday until they are also empty.

The shelves aren't exactly how I want them organized, but at least they're neat, a great start.

I'm gaining a lot of space in my new room but lost a light of natural light.  This room only has one small window and the view isn't all that good either.  With the yellow walls and great light fixture I'm not missing the sunshine, however I know I will miss watching the snow fall this winter.   But if that is my only complaint, I think I'm a very lucky quilter to not only have a designated sewing studio, but such a nice one.

I've yet to hang anything on any walls in the whole house other than two rods to hold two quilts.  The place still feels and looks bare, but it's so hard to drive nails into my perfectly painted and neat walls. I have some great things for my walls in my sewing room so I'm just going to have to get over it, maybe tomorrow!

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Autumn Woods Update

I loved the comments you left on my last Autumn Woods post.  From the comments about the number and size of my geese to the planned random idea floating around in my head, they were all good.   My favorite thing about blogging is hearing from other quilters, the comments left on my Autumn Woods post were funny and interesting, thank you for that.

So here is what's going on, just in case you've forgotten.

This will be the top and bottom border for my project.  My idea is to fill the space between the two borders with flying geese blocks.  This border is around 12 inches wide.  (yes those are trees, and a few squirrels)

This quilt is A Gaggle Goslings by Emma at Sampaquita Quilts and was published in the Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine, Volume 22.

It's the inspiration for filling my center space with geese.  While I love this design, I thought it was too many geese for my center and too defined.  Additionally, while the geese in this center are somewhat confused, they still have a pattern, I want really confused geese.  Besides the size of the blocks I also changed my design just a tad from Emma's pattern.

So I intend to have some blocks like these, 

with a lot of geese.

And some blocks like these, with quite a few less geese.  (yes the blocks are the same pattern)

And then some blocks in-between these two, with a nice medium amount of geese.  The blocks with the  most geese will be in the center of the quilt, with blocks with fewer and fewer yet geese spanning out from there.  At least that's my plan, I have no design wall and am sort of flying by the seat of my pants on this one.  

I'm going for the same loose and random feel of the leaves blowing around the tree border, only using geese, not leaves.  And using a specific block pattern to create the look. 

As for my colors, I'm  going heavy on the orange, adding some ivory, and going sparse on the yellow.

I'm hoping once the blocks that go in-between these to rows are done that it will look a little better, we'll see!  

The good news, see that wood flooring peeking around those blocks, that's the new floor in my new sewing room!  I'm not sewing in that room yet, I still need another coat of paint, the closets finished, and some furniture, but I'm getting close!

I hope you're enjoying your fall weather, there are so many things to love about this season, spiced cider, pumpkin bread, crisp apples with caramel,  plus the weather's pretty terrific too, there's nothing like a brisk walk on a fall day, I'm making the most of it all,  (fall food requires fall walks) I hope you are too!

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Next Up - Autumn Woods

Since it's technically fall, and I like to work on fall projects in the fall,  I'm thrilled I have this Kate & Birdie Paper Co fabric for Moda on my sewing table right now.

This is Autumn Woods.

I love all the prints and colors in this line of fabric

 I would have bought this fabric regardless, 

but it was this border print that really sealed the deal for me.

That design is around 12 inches wide.

Right now my plan is to add around nine hundred 1" x 2" flying geese between the two borders in some sort of random yet planned pattern.  

Making flying geese blocks seems to be the perfect activity for my little temporary sewing space and limited time as we work on the house.

My goal is 50 geese a day.  So far I've got 50 for the week!  That's OK, I'll take what I can get.

It's fall, my favorite time of year, and I'm sewing, it's all good.

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