school bus finish!

Another finished quilt?

Yep!

(But remember I quilted three in January?  This is the last of those.)

This all started out in 2021 with my Sticks Project, but other than a single blog reference, I cannot find the photo of said sticks.  Apparently this quilt was chosen for July - I believe the stick would have said something like "Quilt from a Book," meaning I could start a new one.

Going back in the blog (because with the new computer, all my photos are dated the day I transferred them, not the date they were taken or uploaded...sigh...), it looks like I bought fabric in August...

I remember being super excited about the fabric for the back (on the bottom here), but struggling with all the other fabrics.  I love the orange and the black isn't bad (directional, but I can do this)...but the turquoise and yellow?  I remember standing in the store, staring into space a lot, trying to envision the final product.

Once everything was washed and pressed and folded neatly, I could start cutting...

There are two alternating blocks, so a lot of strip piecing was able to happen here.  But it was A LOT of pieces!  (I mean, I've done more, but it still seemed tedious.)  It really doesn't look like much here, but those stacks are pretty tall.

And then I saw this and groaned...

See what I mean about a lot of pieces?  But what's a quilter to do when they really want that quilt?  Buckle down and make them.  That's what.

Whoa that's a big stack!  Better get to pressing and trimming before it has other ideas about the shape and location it should be in...

Lots of trimmings and if I remember right, my arm and shoulder were sore the next day, but it was done.

On to sewing units into blocks - which was a bit tedious, but was also a turning point where things started going faster.  Add in seeing it start to look like something for encouragement and it got easier.

Next up was the layout.  In reviewing my blog posts, I wasn't sure if the white cornerstones (and middlestones?) would be what I wanted, but I realized it needed that pop, so I found some solid off-white in the stash (it took just a small amount) that worked nicely and started top assembly.

Apparently I took no photos there (because I can't find any - the photos all transferred, they just re-dated themselves - thankfully they're at least in folders by year so there's that...but that was ALL me!), but next thing I had a top.  That I also did not take any photos of.

(WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!)

Anyways, then it sat for a while, aging.

And then I decided it was time.

I flipped through my longarm inspiration books and couldn't decide what to do for quite a while.  I always think about doing something custom first, but often I end up deciding to go the easy way and do an overall design.  That's what happened here.  And since you'll not be able to see it on the quilt, I took a photo of the design from the book Pajama Quilter Reloaded called "fern ziggle."

It reminds me of an intestinal tract, so the whole time I was doing this I kept thinking about that.

My longarm behaved nicely, even with black thread, which was a surprise because often black thread, due to how it is dyed and treated and whatnot, breaks most easily.  Maybe my machine has finished with its temper tantrum phase?

Anyways...

Here it is loaded, ready to go.  You can see the white cornerstones and middlestones (yeah, I made that word up, but what else do you call it?) and how the whole quilt layout works.

It took a while longer than I anticipated, but that motif is fairly intensive.  I also almost went blind because I couldn't see a darn thing most of the time!  Black on black is not the best idea.

But I got it done, attached the binding and waited for the sew-in to happen and off I went with my overly ambitious three quilts.  Thankfully, the next month, I got to it and now it's on my couch!

The colors here are a bit darker than actual (see the photo on the longarm for a more true representation), but it's close.  And good enough.

I made it differently from the original because they had a 6x8 setting, which meant you had a different block in each corner.  That bugged the bejeezus out of me, so I did a 7x7 setting and fixed that whole problem with just one more block.

Quilt stats:

Pattern: School Bus

Source: Country Girl Modern book by Jo Kramer and Kelli Hanken

Size: 71x71" (I'm pretty sure)

Pieced and quilted by me!

This turned out louder than I anticipated (because, you know, I bought brighter fabrics because after standing there in the aisles for a while, I knew I better not walk out empty handed!), but I do like it.  I had hoped quilting it would help me like it more (sometimes that happens), but I'm still just in like with it, not in love.  It's all good.  They can't all be winners that way.

In other quilty news, I have finished the Polaroid blocks for the Color Explorer Challenge.  I got a bit ahead of myself, but when I ran out of hammock fabric, I decided to just make the last few all at once and then I'd be able to focus on something else more easily than every day having to set up for a single blocks.  So here they are!

bonus day: avocado

day 20: amaranth

day 21: blue skies

day 22: forest

day 23: bubblegum

day 24: peachy

day 25: emerald

(yes, yes, this is more blue, but the color swatch is actually fairly close to this and I was over trying to match things identically when I found sock monkeys)

day 26: fuchsia

day 27: creamy yellow

day 28: turquoise

Now I have to figure out how to put them together, but I'll get there.  I have some ideas.  Maybe today, maybe later this week, but I'd like to have it done sooner rather than later.  At least the top.

With this done(ish), I was able to move on to the tiger again...finally!

This is 18 of the 20 sections I've done in the last few days.  Two very focused days of 10 sections each got me one side of the face (more or less).  The other two sections are long, skinny, leafy sections much like you see on the far left, but they go on the section below this one.

I doubt I'll get as much done today, what with all the other chores and computer shenanigans of the morning, but this is definitely progress from where I abandoned it months ago.

The eyeball was exciting and laying it all out and stepping back for a photo is really encouraging.

And finally, you may remember the Pantone quilt challenge I participated in back in 2019?  I was so excited to do it again in 2020, but it never happened.  Nor did it happen in 2021 or 2022, BUT!  The gal who originated the challenge was thrilled to turn over the reins to two new gals who announced (via Instagram) that it would be happening again this year!

The official announcement won't happen for a couple more weeks, but they made the informal announcement late last week.  It turns out the rules are the same as they were the last time, but I wanted to be sure before I selected a pattern or purchased anything.

The color (decided by Pantone) is magenta.  I'm not a pink person, but I can work with this, right?

To the Pinterest boards!

At first, when fabric shopping, this quilt was on my mind, so I bought some funkier, larger prints, thinking this would be great.

And then I got home and was scrolling through stuff and came across this one.  And how great would this be with birds with magenta in them?  So I had to go back and buy that more traditional-looking magenta print and some more background and oh dear what have I done?

So now I don't know what I'll be making.

Maybe both?

Oh, the fabrics...

You can see I already have the Sparrows pattern - purchased recently at a quilt show.  The fabric at the top just screams birds at me.  The fabric on the bottom is what inspired a the log cabin-ish blocks idea.

The official kickoff of the Pantone challenge isn't until mid-March, so I'm going to focus on the tiger for a bit, maybe get that together - or at least all the sections sewn? - and let this simmer a bit.

And now I'm off to do...I don't know what?  It's freezing raining here (AGAIN, DAMMIT) and the day is grey and gloomy and feels right for a book and using a quilt, not so much sewing one, but that tiger isn't going to get done if I just read books all day, so hmmm...

Happy quilting,

Katie