Sewing Room Hop

I'm pretty sure a few of you quilters out there are like me - we do the sewing room hop. We enjoy hopping from one project to another, having multiple projects going simultaneously. Either we get bored from continuously working on the same thing, or we need different projects at different stages for portability I've had my hands on five different projects in the past five days.

Project 1: I made and pressed these 2-1/2" X 2-1/2" (unfinished) half-square triangles. They need to be trimmed!

I'm making a whole bunch of them - 80 or more here - to have at the ready to continue piecing "Sunny Lanes," a quilt top that's an ongoing project made with 1-1/2" X 1-1/2" leaders and enders. My tutorial for it is here. 

Project 2: I'm making a second "Carousel" quilt to use as a teaching aid on Saturday, April 27, when I present a modern wedge workshop to members of Jacksonville MQG. 

This slightly different version is pin-basted and ready for domestic machine quilting. The focus fabric is from the 60s Scrapbag collection by Emma Jean Jansen @emmajeanjansen of Australia, and solids are Painter's Palette white and pencil yellow.

Project 3: Using an improv block technique learned from Melanie Tuazon @melintheattic during a QuiltCon workshop, another improv technique from Carole Lyles Shaw @carole_lylesshaw, and a strip insertion concept from Debbie Jeske's @quilterstable Cross-Cut Quilt Along, I continued working on my Central Florida MQG challenge - "It's All About Color." 

For the challenge, we're to choose a different (to us) color combo to make a quilt larger than 20" X 20". My quilt top is 32" X 32", and this is the first time I've ever made a completely improv quilt that I enjoyed making! Though I'm not fond of the color combination - it's called "Spring Color Collect" on DesignSeeds.com. I really don't care for navy blue, especially with coral/salmon, but was happy to play with adding recently-purchased gradated/ombré fabrics. 

Now I'm trying to decide which thread to use for quilting, and am considering this Aurifil variegated. The finished piece is due by our May 13 Central Florida MQG meeting.

These solid and print scraps remain. I emptied another cone of Aurifil! This is at least the fourth cone of Aurifil I've emptied in the past ten years, and I've used-up more than a dozen medium-sized spools of Aurifil. Empty spools are in the toy bin, for grandies to play with when they visit.

Project 4: I thought I was nearing a finish on my English paper-pieced "TulaNova" quilt top - I call it LindaNova - but then discovered some tiny triangles were missing. See the V-shaped gaps between the star medallions? 

I need 20 filler triangles, so I fussy-cut this Riley Blake print to make them.

Project 5: My Cascade quilt continues to progress. Needing 57 curve braid shapes in each of the nine columns, I laid a sheet on the floor, at the bottom of my design wall, and have kept arranging curve braid pieces. I can kneel on the floor for only so long, and then have to get up, stretch, and stand back for a look.

Better and better. Even Dan likes is!

Now, if only I can stop tweaking the arrangement every time I'm in the sewing room! Below is the latest iteration. 

By the end of the week I plan to carefully remove it from the design wall in layout order, and stack each column in preparation for piecing.

I finished listening to "The Borrower," by Rebecca Makkai. The story centers on Lucy Hull, a children's librarian, who befriends ten year-old Ian Drake. Her special relationship with him leads her two places - on a cross-country adventure, and on a road to self-discovery. I didn't enjoy the author's strong moral opinion on social issues, nor the inconclusive ending.

Linda's score 2.5/5

I'm curious... do you like to sewing room hop? Linda