A Colorful Thread: December 2024
Weaving together my life as a maker and other spheres of life.
BEST OF STITCHED IN COLOR {December}
On My Mind
Experimenting:: with a new English paper piecing project. Now that my sewing machine is no longer at home, I need a hand-sewing project than entices more than ever. Here is a possible fabric palette, but maybe it’s too much like my last EPP quilt, Passageways (Ice Cream Soda)?
Reading:: Everything/Nothing/Someone: A Memoir by Alice Carrière. Reading a memoir is like meeting an interesting person and being invited to their inner life. This one is a disturbing account of the painful relationship between the writer and her mother, who is a famous artist. Reading it has given me some perspective on my own struggles. Sometimes it’s helpful to remember that things can be much worse. I am only halfway and hope that there is a bit of light yet to come.
TODAY’S STITCHED IN COLOR IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY~
PreQuilt
You’ve designed a beautiful quilt in PreQuilt and now you want to make it? Well, great news! PreQuilt’s new Fabric Calculator helps you with the quilt math and gives suggestions on how much fabric you will need as well as how you can cut it.
The Fabric Calculator calculates fabric needs for individual blocks, whole quilt tops, backings, bindings and even makes cutting diagrams for efficient fabric use. WOW!
Celebrating:: a year full of patchwork and my favorite make of 2024: Inhibition quilt.
“So I guess this is my break up quilt, and a pretty darn good one at that. It’s romantic, passionate, beautiful, like a sultry fan dance. But the circles aren’t complete. The shapes are touching, but distinct. And the negative space is almost pushing from the center out, cutting into the circles with sharp, precise angles.
I know that inhibition has its uses and also can give life. But for me this is the sort where something that should be free is contained. Perhaps things look lovely on the outside, but that cramped feeling inside tells you everything you need to know.
One of my favorite features are those bright pink squares, which represent my heart like Bright Pink Confetti. I’m also quite fond of the red squares around the outside edge. I love how they hold everything in (more containment!), but are also broken up by the wayward fans.”
Anticipating:: getting back to making quilts! My December was swallowed up in relocating both my home and my workplace. I very much miss actually sewing. Now that everything is more or less settled, I anticipate getting back into the creative flow, staring with a the Scrap Cabin quilt sew-along. Yay!
Featured Freebie
Kingfisher Quilt
Stitched in Color includes a library of free tutorials, more than 10 years in the making. Each month I’ll feature one to spread the good news.
The Kingfisher quilt project combines English paper piecing, appliqué and traditional piecing. New to English paper piecing (EPP)? Learn all the basics with this project, ideal for the EPP newbie.
Today Aart and I are heading out of town for a short getaway. We’ll spend New Years in a quiet German lake town, in a cozy AirBnB. I have packed an EPP project, that memoir I have been reading and Anna Maria Blueprint Quilting. What is a perfectly delightful recipe for a refreshing and restful break, don’t you think? Lucky, lucky me =)
I wish you much rest and inspiration for the year to come. Happy New Years!
xoxo,
Rachel
Happy New Year Rachel! Take a look at Jody's Red Sky at Night pattern, it has both epp and machine piecing, can be scrappy or not! I plan to start mine in the new year.
Ein gutes neues Jahr!