Euroa Quilt Update

Remember this one? I barely did. In the last year and a bit I think I’ve made 3 little blocks, just 3. I need 100 for the whole quilt, so that doesn’t exactly amount to much progress. Full transparency: I started this quilt in 2016. Frankly, I just wasn’t in the mood. I had other things to play with (shiny object syndrome).

Lately, however, I’ve been wanting to sit in the quiet. Maybe some music, maybe a show, but mostly just sitting still. The season for slow stitching returns. I pulled this out of the closet, hung up what I have finished, and got excited to stitch again. Sure, I’ve always been sewing, but the desire for this English Paper Piecing was gone. After those two hand work projects of 2023 I wanted more of that slow stitch time.

Turns out I only need 26 blocks to finish this. That means I am 3/4 of the way through. That isn’t that much, really. I’ve never timed how long it takes me from start to finish on one block, but I would venture that it is a few hours. That includes picking the fabric and prepping the pieces, basting, then stitching the block together. After that there is stitching block to block to block to block (I use 4 to make a larger, mega block). Then I have to assemble rows. Finally, add rows to each other. It’s all done by hand. I would guess I have at least 120 hours of stitching in front of me. Now, if I could sit down every day for hours a day, well, it wouldn’t take that long! But this, like most of my quilt making, is a side project to life.

Actually, this kind of slow stitching is life. No, I don’t mean that I am living for it. More that it is a big part of me and what makes me whole, calm, and living creatively. So yeah, it’s time to come back to this.

Jules, or my Arkison in Australia Quilt

Jules

85” x 66”

I’ve never been so sad to finish a quilt. Seriously, a few tears were shed.

This was an epic quilt making journey that started on my teaching trip to Australia back in 2016. I was demonstrating improv curves for some students and grabbed the first two interesting fabrics from the little shop onsite. Over the course of my trip I did a few more demos with that fabric, then collected fabric from both my students and a screen printing adventure. When I came home it made sense to me to keep playing with all those fabrics, like they were meant to be. I added a bit more from my stash and away I went.

Improv quilting can be a total free for all and work wonderfully, but it also works really well with guidelines or even limitations. In addition to my limited colour palette I restricted my improv components to a few key shapes/techniques: curves, diamonds, triangles, and little bits. It may sounds like a lot, but it actually isn’t. Not when it comes to improv.

I basically kept making components until I ran out of the fabrics, leaving a little behind to help me create a quilt top. I did not pay attention to size of the blocks when making or squaring up. When I felt finished making all the components I moved on to my favourite part - making them all play well together in the quilt top. Design wall play is the absolute best. It’s all about making it work as both a composition and simply to use up all the pieces.

And then she sat. And sat and sat. That’s just how things go in my world. I even had the backing fabric - gifts from Emma Jean Jansen, an Aussie designer and one of my students in Australia - but wasn’t ready to quilt her yet. The truth is that I knew how she deserved to be quilted and I wasn’t quite up for the challenge.

When I was asked to put together my show for the Heritage Park Quilter of Distinction display I knew I had to include this quilt. It was time to face the work.

My plan from the beginning was a combination of machine and hand stitching. And most of the machine stitching with would in the ditch. On a quilt like this that meant a lot, a lot of starts and stops. Which also means a lot of burying threads. Nothing like taking on this much work on a deadline! Did I mention the hand quilted elements too?

The bulk of the handwork was finished on an epic road trip we took in May. At least, the parts not done in front of the TV while I ignored the world. It even required a stop at a quilt store in Kelowna and I was very sad I did not have time to shop for anything other than a tool to help me bury my threads. There is at least 20 hours of handwork in her. She is full of my love.

Sure, it was a lot of work and every single stitch was worth it. The quilt came out exactly how I wanted it to, how I envisioned her.

The machine quilting was all done in a pale blue thread from my stash. It might have been a Presencia 100% cotton collected years before the quilt even started. The hand quilted touches were all done with Wonderful Perle cotton, in a couple of different blues and yellows. This included stitching down the binding, on the front, with big blue stitches.

I won’t lie, I was also intimidated by doing that much handstitching, even though it was my own idea. But thankfully, quilting an entire quilt for Morning Make last year built my confidence and comfort.

Did I mention there were a few tears when she was finished? That trip to Australia was formative for me. It was her furthest and longest I’ve been gone from home. I developed and delivered multi day workshops which were an absolute dream. The people I met were incredible and I am still in touch with many of them. This quilt also defined one of my favourite ways to make a quilt - by playing.

She is named for Jules. Jules McMahon was the woman who brought me to Australia. We knew each other online and had met at the early QuiltCons. But that trip solidified a friendship through road trips, sweets exchanges, late nights with wine, creative bonding, gluten free Chinese food, exploring for Lyre Birds, a love of circles, and one chilly ocean swim. We have similar levels of insanity and drive and I am grateful to her for the trip to Australia, yes, but also for continued friendship and inspiration.

Euroa Quilt Update

And done.

Not the quilt, just the second row. It seems I am on track for one row a year as I started this quilt a little over two years ago. I haven’t quite worked up the energy to assemble the two rows together. More accurately, I haven’t found the time to clear the dining room table to do so because that is the only place I can do it.

This whole thing is sewn together via the flat back stitch. I love it! Unlike a whip stitch, which most of us seem to use for EPP, the stitches totally disappear with the flat back stitch. On the small scale it is no less portable than the whip stitch. I always have my sketch book with me so I tape my pieces together on then get right to stitching. On the large scale though, like when I have a mega block together or am assembling a row like this, I need to go back to my old stand by - the dining room table.

In time for summer I should have the two rows together and the next batch of blocks ready for work. Slow and steady on this project. I will say that finishing this row is motivation. Yes it is only row two out of five, but seeing it all together is exciting! It reminds me that my work is indeed getting me somewhere. One block at a time it seems interminably slow, but I am drinking in the process. Camping, road trips, and the odd lazy afternoon are coming up, perfect for a little more assembly. Probably by the time I get the third row done it will be dandelion season again!

Euroa Quilt Update - October 2018

So, it’s been what? 17 months?

I started the Euroa Quilt in May 2017. One baby block at a time. 400 of those. Four together to make 1 block. 100 of those. Four of those then together to make a mega block. 25 of those. That’s the plan.

For anyone new here and to remind you all, this is the quintessential “Quilter Inspired by a Tile Floor” quilt. I snapped a pic in a doorway in a small town in Australia. That town was Euroa. It turns out this is not an uncommon tile pattern in Australia in the Mid Century. This quilt is an homage to that trip in so many ways,

Here’s where I’m at.

7 Mega Blocks.

30 Blocks Done (and 1 in final assembly)

3 more blocks prepped for hand stitching.

That might seem slow to you, but it seems about perfect to me. I do this project in quiet moments at the summer campsite, while hanging out at the pool/ballet studio/fencing gym, sometimes while watching TV, and on the rare quiet Sunday when I feel like handstitching instead of being interrupted reading. I didn’t stitch for 3 months last year as I struggled with tennis elbow. Things are a bit slow going right now as I don’t do a lot of sitting (newsletter readers know what I am talking about - subscribe below!) and you can only stitch so much standing up.

The truth is, I am in no rush. You’ve heard me say before that quilt making is about the process for me - the making more than the quilt itself. I absolutely love having such a portable hand work project. I really don’t care how long it takes me to finish. If I did then I would have made this smaller! As it stands, the baby blocks are 4’’. Which means the quilt as I have it planned will be 80’’ x 80’’ of hand stitched goodness.

To assemble the quilt I sew the mega blocks together then sew those together in columns. Not sure why, but in my brain I made the far right column first so I am working right to left. I usually prep one or two blocks at a time, laying out what I have so far so that my random scrappiness is somewhat controlled - no two fabrics right next to each other. It does require vacuuming the studio floor and keeping the dog out. I can do the basting and stitching of each block while in any number of places, but save the mega block assembly for home, on a large table.

Oh, and I wholeheartedly recommend the flat back stitch when it comes to English Paper Piecing.

I’ve been asked if I am bored yet. Nope. Not at all. It is highly repetitive. I think if I were working on very controlled fabric/colour placement I might be. Or maybe I would switch to foundation paper piecing for that project? But the scrappy nature of my fabric selection and my infinite patience to pick it up, put it down, and pick it up again is keeping me from getting bored. Quite the opposite, I get super excited each time I finish a block!

The printable templates are still for sale on my Etsy site, if you are interested.