Today is the Last! Day! of the 100 day project and I have officially wrapped up my scrappy, rainbow-licious quilt top! I decided to finish out my blocks a couple days early so I could spend the last 2 days putting together the quilt top, but then last night I got on a roll and finished the whole thing. So technically I finished a day early, but I think the universe will forgive me for that.
My blocks were all 5″ unfinished, so the finished top is ~45″ square. That’s actually smaller than the image I had in my head, but it’s also a good size for a baby quilt (not that I am having any babies) or for the girls to play with. I might hang it on the wall? Maybe a giveaway someday? Save it to be donated at some point? I’m really not sure.
I do know that the plan for the next couple days is to come up with a backing — from my stash, of course. And on Friday I’ll be taking it over to a local shop to longarm quilt it. I’m wondering if it’s a little silly to “waste” rented longarm hours on such a small quilt? But I don’t have anything else immediately ready to go, and I think this will be a good quilt top to practice stippling. (I was pretty good at stippling when I tried it during my intro class, which is why I’m willing to go for it on this top.)
I’ve also officially started my City Sampler quilt as part of Gnome Angel’s #100days100blocks2018 sew-along happening on Instagram. I mentioned earlier that I’d be trying to sew a bit ahead on this one, and that plan is working well enough so far. Today is day 5, but I’ve actually sewn the first 10 blocks already. I think it will be good to have a little cushion along the way. I could make a 100 day project improv block in 5 minutes or less if I really needed to, but the City Sampler blocks require a bit more time and planning, not to mention precision cutting and sewing.
Since it’s highly likely that I will only ever make one City Sampler, I first got the book on digital loan from the library. However, that was going to be problematic in the long run, since technically I’d need to return the book every 2 weeks and hope that I could borrow it again right away. (I know there are ways around this with digital books, such as turning off wifi, but that didn’t seem like a viable option for 3+ months.) So instead, I decided to buy the Kindle version of the book. I’ve borrowed a handful of quilting and sewing books in digital form before with mixed success. Sometimes they work ok, but sometimes the layout gets really wonky and is much more difficult to use than a print version. This one falls more toward the “ok” side, since each block is presented in a standard and straightforward manner. (One that I borrowed in digital format that didn’t work so well for me was Vintage Quilt Revival — absolutely lovely book, and one that I ended up eventually buying in print because the Kindle version was so difficult.)
I’m curious — does anyone else out there borrow sewing books from the library? Do you borrow them digitally? And do you find the same issues that I do? It makes me wonder if there’s something that could be done to make them more user-friendly in digital form. That’s probably something the publisher would need to address, I guess, but I can dream!
I have not rented or purchased quilting books digitally (I have the original Kindle that is only black and white so it has never seemed worth trying out full color things like quilting books). That being said, I think if you wanted to figure out formatting and conversion topics that it would be a very marketable skill. If that kind of freelance work would interest you. 🙂
I love how your improv blocks came together and I hope you have a great time quilting it on Friday. Because it is small, you can try smaller / denser quilting for a challenge, if that is interesting. Learning how to vary size when free-handing on a longarm is a great skill.
I’ve definitely had that thought re: formatting/conversion for digital! Ha! You raise a good point about the color vs. monotone though — my actual Kindle is monotone, so it doesn’t really work for quilting books, or any books that are illustration or photo heavy. For those, I have used my iPad. For the City Sampler, I’ve actually just been pulling it up on my desktop computer, which is in my sewing room and thus easy to reference as I’m sewing.
I do want to stipple fairly small. I think one challenge will be just staying consistent across the whole quilt, and not accidentally getting bigger as I go along out of laziness or sloppiness!
Wow well I love the rainbow improv blocks. That is fabulous. It looks like it should be way bigger than 45 but it is beautiful all the same. I check out quilt books from the library but we don’t have digital access except for magazines at the moment.
Thanks Kristie! The picture is a little deceiving because it does make it look bigger somehow. Maybe this is a cue to start another one with larger blocks… 😉
I need to go over to my local library in person to check out what kind of selection they actually have there on the shelves. The digital collection is so well stocked that I hardly ever go to the actual building!
One of the joys of belonging to a quilt guild is that many have lending libraries. You mentioned a group you’ve been going to; do they have one? Or can you ask the members if they have a particular book they can loan you? I hate buying books because I change the pattern so much that I don’t feel like I got the value out of them.
Yes, my guild does have a library! But since we’re new, it’s pretty small.
I actually borrowed a book from them last week. But darn — now I wish I’d thought to just buy the City Sampler book in print, and then I could have donated it to the guild library when I finished. Will have to keep that in mind for the future!
I used to go to the library a lot with the kids, and I’d always check out a quilting book or two.
I’ve also checked out probably every quilting book my library has available digitally. The selection is pretty limited, and honestly there wasn’t a single one that I liked enough to make a quilt out of. I like borrowing books to decide if I like them. If I like a quilting book, I have no problem buying it. The library was kind of like try before you buy. I’ve have never bought a quilting or knitting book digitally, though, that I can think of.
Yeah, using the library to preview books is definitely a good way to go. I think this book works ok digitally because of its simplicity, but most don’t.