WIP Wednesday

I thought it was time for an update on my Midnight at the Oasis quilt, which I started at the beginning of October (my first post and fabric pull are here).  As you can see, I've now finished the centre and the first border which is made up of orange peel blocks.  

I paper pieced the triangles in the centre and would really really recommend that method - I'm sure it was about a million times more accurate for me than trying to piece them any other way.  Sharon of Fabric and Flowers has a tutorial on how to do this.  If you go down this road, I would recommend leaving the paper attached to those triangles until you've added the inset triangle pieces - I think it makes that step easier.

 

The inset triangles were a little tricky, but I was having a Tim Gunn moment and managed to make it work.  I did a couple of things that I think helped me along though.  First, I traced the shape of the inset triangle piece onto a piece of freezer paper, and ironed it to my fabric.  Then I used my ruler and rotary cutter to cut out the shape, adding a 1/4" seam allowance to the two shorter sides (as per the pattern) and a 1/2" seam allowance to the longest side.  This extra wiggle room meant that the centre finished slightly larger than required and I was able to trim it down to the perfect size.  I also think using freezer paper to guide my cutting made it more accurate.  Finally, I made sure the longest side of the inset pieces was aligned with the grain of the fabric, so I didn't have any bias edges on the outside of the centre block.  Of course, my centre block still didn't finish perfectly flat, but my friends starch and steam helped a lot with that.

I used a hand blanket stitch to secure the appliqué on the orange peel blocks and also the centre circles (if you are interested, you can read/watch my tutorial about how to do blanket stitch).

Despite this quilt being outside my comfort zone (hello appliqué, tiny pieces and inset seams!), I'm really loving it.  It's completely addictive and I think I may have discovered a new love for handwork (although I'm generally in favour of anything which involves sitting on the couch, so I guess that shouldn't be a surprise!).  I'm also really happy with this autumnal colour scheme - it's really warm and rich but still bright and interesting.  I've started cutting out the little appliqué pieces for the next border - I might have to slow down for a bit while I work on other things though.

I'm linking up this post to Jess' linky - it's open for a while yet so if you are also working on a Midnight at the Oasis quilt you should link up too!  Is anyone else working on this quilt?  If you're further ahead than me I'd love any advice you have for the upcoming borders!

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

WIP Wednesday

The lovely Jess from The Elven Garden is co-hosting a Midnight at the Oasis Quilt Along, to make this stunning quilt designed by Jen Kingwell.  I don't usually participate in Quilt Alongs, but this quilt was really tempting me and when my local friends said they were thinking about making it too I knew I had to play along!

Photo from Amitie Textiles website

I think this quilt will be great for working on the accuracy of my piecing.  The whole quilt is only 61" square so you can probably work out that there are a lot of tiny pieces in there!

 

While I love the fabrics used in the original quilt, I decided to take things in a different direction (I can never resist putting my own spin on a quilt even when I'm using someone else's pattern).  I pulled a large number of autumn coloured prints from my stash for this quilt, and where Jen has used black and grey fabrics I intend to use a variety of cream and beige fabrics.

This colour scheme could end up looking kind of traditional, but I'm hoping that the fact that my fabrics are sort of bright autumn colours, and the pops of aqua/teal I'm including, will keep my quilt fresh.

This is where I'm up to right now.  Instead of needle turned appliqué as the pattern calls for, I'm intending to secure most of my appliquéd pieces with handworked blanket stitch.  I've never done this much handwork on a quilt before but I think it should be something nice to do on the couch and to take along to stitch group and guild meetings.  In this picture the circles and orange peels are just stuck down with fusible webbing - I'm still to sew a single stitch!

So, have you been tempted by any of the quilt alongs happening out there at the moment?

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced: