Hello!
This turned out to be quite the long blog post. Lots of things to talk about so hopefully you’ll stick with me til the end.
This past weekend my husband, my mom and I went to the first annual Willamette Valley Quilt Festival. This was a quilt show put on by the local sew and vac store and the LQS I frequent. There were about 300 quilts, vendors, classes, and lectures. My husband took his camera and took photos for me because, let’s be honest, my photo taking skills leave something to be desired. The quilt festival was at the local expo center and it was a great venue. Free parking, lunch options, and plenty of room for walking through the quilts. I had a great time and wanted to share the photos my husband took.
The next challenge from Project Quilting dropped yesterday. This week’s challenge theme is “Bold and Brave”. The rules say it could honor someone’s courage, a new technique, or conquer a fear in quilting. My first thought was maybe I should skip this week’s challenge but a quick search about quotes on boldness resulted in the following quote:
“How does the Meadow flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free down to its root, and in that freedom bold.”
-William Wordsworth
The first two Project Quilting challenges I challenged myself to do new techniques and to conquer fear. One of my main fears is fear of failing and I didn’t fail on my first two projects, I finished so I consider that a success but there are things about each project that I didn’t like or knew I could work on to be better. So, I will continue to work on my skills and I consider this season of Project Quilting and even this year as a chance to be bold and explore. I don’t want to hold back because I might fail.
I’ve joined a new sew along. I know, one more thing to add to my spreadsheet. I do have a spreadsheet of my projects to keep me on track this year. It turns out it’s been way better for me than the paper lists I’ve been keeping even though I love paper and stationery.
Back to the sew along… The sew along is put on by Stitch Supply Co. and the pattern is Village by Jumble, Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co. There are 132 house blocks in this quilt! I love house blocks but haven’t made a quilt out of them yet so here’s my opportunity. The sew along is 8 blocks per week starting today, February 5th and ends June 17th. Stitch Supply Co. has created a sew along schedule sheet so you can color in or cross out houses as you go. These house blocks are perfect for fussy cutting but I think I’m going to go a different direction. I am so inspired by the fun, wonky-ness, and boldness of Freddy Moran’s quilts and oh the colors she uses. She considers red a neutral which is way out of my comfort zone and uses black and white to let the eye rest. My Village quilt will still be using the pattern so no wonky houses but I’m going to try using bold colors inspired by Freddy.
I’ve chosen a black on white polka dot fabric for the background and will pull bold, pure colors from my stash for the houses. We’ll see how it works out. If you’d like to join me the hashtag on Instagram is #sewingavillage and visit Stitch Supply Co. to get your pattern and the schedule sheet.
Over the last week I machine bound four quilts and I thought I’d share a video that my mom and I made several years ago about how to join the ends of your binding. It’s definitely on the amateurish side but it gets the point across. Enjoy!
Happy Quilting!
Camille
Stitchin' the Northwest 