Technicolor Galaxy Check In

I know this Technicolor 'thing' has been going on for a long time.  Such is the way of 'Skill Building BOM's'.  When you think about it, it's been nine months!  Yep!  Nine months!  I tend to finish a quilt from beginning to end and then repeat.  Having a nine monther...Let me tell you, it's hard!

Jenn @ A Quarter Inch From The Edge decided to have a check in for the project.  I love seeing what others are doing and what they have done so far.  Share & tell!

Last night I rummaged through the closet, pulled out my pile of Technicolor 'this & that' and snapped some pictures.  Okay, I went crazy on the pictures.  Why?  When I finish a block for this, I put it away until the next month (some times 2 or 3, and then play catch up). Which made me want to spread it out, look at it, take it in and revel in the craziness of it all!

I was reminded of how much trouble I had with the bias tape.

Excited all over again when I saw the rainbow quilting on the back.

The star points...need I say more?

My marathon of being behind on the Piano Keys, Arrowheads and Geese blocks, only to buckle down and get caught up.  (not easy at all)

Which brings me to today's status!  I went with a low volume center for my Hexie Flowers, they match the Orange Peels!  A happy accident!  Quilting will happen after the next block is finished.  (where is it?!)   

At this point, I haven't a clue how or if this will come together.  I'm a little freaked out, a little excited.  Hopefully I didn't screw up the blocks thus far, you know, cut them the wrong size! That would really not be good!

It was nice to revisit, play with it like a puzzle and look at it once again!  Progress!

A Sticky Situation

Believe it or not, I'm actually ahead of the game!  I may have learned my lesson after getting three months behind on my Technicolor Galaxy block of the month. This was my last post,  In A Galaxy Far, Far Away,  which shows just how grueling it was! 

We are on Block #7 ~ Hexie Flowers.  Little 5/8" hexies, stabilizer templates and glue.  Glue. I have used glue to stick a template to fabric and hand stitch around the edges, but I have not glued the edges before.  There sure is a lot of gluing in this BOM!  

The first problem I encountered were the templates.  I bought the pre-cut stabilizer templates, and it turns out I didn't read the fine print.  This block needs 84 hexagons, clearly you can see the bag contains 60.  I didn't think it was a HUGE deal, until I tried to find a template online for 5/8" hexagons.  It is a weird size?  I found every other size except what I needed.  At the end of my rope I came across this site:  Incometech,  You can print graph paper shapes in squares, hexies, octagons ~ just about anything and you can make them any size you need. Really very cool!  I printed a copy on a stabilizer sheet (after making sure they were the exact size and the pre-cuts), cut them out and was ready to roll.

     

Fabric was the next step, one I thought would be easy.  I won't go in to detail, just know that I didn't like it not one little bit!!  But I played along. I picked. I cut. I counted. I searched. I did it.

I grabbed the glue stick, snatched the templates out of the bag (plus the ones I laboriously cut), and started gluing one template to each little square and you know what?  This blew my mind, there were not 60 templates in that bag.  Nope.  Not 60 at all.  There were actually enough for all my 84 hexies and then some!!!  Crazy talk!  I may have said a few 'swears', more than a few...but dang!

Putting that behind me, it was time to get crackin'!  This would be my night time entertainment! I'm so out of control, a wild party girl, stop me now!!

It was slow going.  Trim the fabric, glue the edges.  Sticky fingers.  Like really sticky!  I may be doing it wrong, but the glue stick wasn't really that cooperative.  I felt like a hot mess. With a few flowers finished, I called it a night.  

   

...and picked it up the next night...

...until I ended up with...

84 of the cutest little glue filled, hexagons!  

...put them all together and you have 12 colorful flowers...

There is still work to be done in the form of hand stitching.  

Marked and ready.  One, two, three...

Quilt Porn Picture of the Month

Progress.  And ahead of time for a change!  Block #7...you are soon to be history! 

My first ever hand stitched hexies completed!  I was hoping a rhythm would come to me once I started, and it did.  I've always admired people who do English Paper Piecing.  Now I see why they love it so much.  There may be more of this in my future!  

I used a whip stitch to join the hexies.  I think I did it right! 

For those who are participating in this Skill Builder BOM, Jenn @ A Quarter Inch From The Edge will be hosting a progress link up on the 12th of each month starting in September and going through December.  A fun way to share our progress no matter how much or how little you have done.

Who out there uses glue in their quilting?  What are your thoughts on this technique?  I see the benefit in a dab of glue for hexies or for that first piece of fabric in paper piecing.  I'm not sure anything beyond that is for me.  We'll see!

In A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Oh, Technicolor Galaxy, you look so pretty nestled snugly on a shelf...far, far away! Remember this project?

TECHNICOLOR GALAXY
Pile O' Fabric

I kind of got behind.  Way behind.  The hardest part of this project for me is bringing out the kit, fabric, templates every month for one block.  I thought I would wait another month and have two to work on.  The next think I knew, four months had passed and I was light years behind!

I felt like I needed a big, swift kick in the butt!  The butt kicking came from Jenn at A Quarter Inch From The Edge!  She didn't exactly kick my butt!  She did however, encourage (ever so gently), motivate and nudge me along.  Thank you Jenn!!

This is where I ended back in March!  See how fast time gets away from you?!  

I began with Block #3, Piano Keys.  

Once the fabric was selected for the blocks, it was on!  As always, picking the fabric took the longest!

I enjoyed making these.  I went with solids on top and prints on the bottom.  This block is paper pieced and pretty simple.

Block # 4, Scattered Geese.

I did not enjoy this one very much.  I love geese, I love paper piecing.  I was overwhelmed with all the pieces!  Once all the pieces had their 'geese', the sections had to be sewn together.  My seam ripper was used on more than one occasion.  There ended up being a section or two that were upside down!

Block #5, Arrowheads.

After block 3 and 4, this less complicated block was a welcome relief!  Applique time!  You know the drill!  Choosing the fabric!  Tick, tock, tick, tock...finally got that figured out!  This involved cutting fabric squares, ironing the fusible web to the back, cutting the arrowheads out, peeling the backing off, arranging and then iron those suckers down.  Done!

Block #6, Orange Peel.

Fortunately for me, when I ordered supplies for this Block Of The Month, I bought the orange peel stabilizer templates.  Good and bad about this one.  Good: they are glued down.  Bad: a lot of scissor cutting and prep! I found it super hard to get perfect points and clean edges.

They are done.  They are not perfect.  But they are done, done, done!!  Except for the quilting, but that will be another story!

Some where along the line, I found a couple mistakes!  Can you figure out what they are? The entire time I kept reminding myself to make sure I placed the colors in the correct place. I didn't.  The violet and gold/green arrowheads ended reversed.  As of right now, they will have to do.  

I thought it was a good idea to save up four months worth of blocks and do them all at once. That was not a good plan.  It was exhausting.  Mentally, physically.  I was overwhelmed with 'gotta get this done' thoughts and it took away from the pleasure of learning new things and enjoying the process.  Plus, it led to rookie mistakes (color flow)!  

Do you think I should redo the two arrowheads?  Once you see the mistake, it stands out like a sore thumb! 

UPDATE:  
I decided it was worth the time and effort to make this right ~ I would have been disappointed in myself had I not done the right thing and fixed the arrowheads!  Thank you for the advice!

LINKING:

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Needle & Thread Thursday

Skill Builder #2 (almost)

It's that time of the month!  No!  Not that time of the month!  Let me rephrase...the second block for the Technicolor Galaxy Skill Builder BOM  

My first block was the center color wheel.  You can see it here: Technicolor Madness. Block 2 will be the Star Points.  Paper piecing fun!  

     
I pulled out the color wheel from last month and located the bag with the templates for the stars.  Good start so far.  (that was the easy part!)  

All of the paper piecing templates I printed on wash away stabilizer sheets.  Have you ever used them before?  This will be my first time. One of those new skills I wanted to learn!

I really didn't plan what or how I wanted my finished piece to be.  Since I was hoping to learn new things, I decided to keep it simple and stick with the color wheel.  However, had I known the possibilities that were out there I may have veered off the path a little!

This is the stage where I have to figure out my star point colors.  It seems easy enough. One of these days I should really time myself to see how long it actually takes me to make up my mind!

I got it now!  Neatly pinned, organized and ready to go!

Squeal!!!!  Love these!  I could look at them all day, every day.  I wonder if I could make these over and over and over...they were fun!

This is the plan.  Yes, that step was fun.  But there is so much more to do!

Like picking the coordinating prints for the second part if the stars!  That was difficult and made me want a glass of wine.  But I didn't cave...I stuck with it and eventually came to my final picks.

First I needed to cut a bunch, like a lot, a lot 1 3/4" low volume strips. And I might add, I'm glad I finally got on the low volume band wagon and now have a respectable stash...that was very helpful!

These are my first two 'test' pieces.  I was anxious to see how they would look.  With these two done, I have 22 more to go.  Hold on...let me whip those out...be right back...tick tock, tick tock...

That wasn't a long wait, right?  I spent most of the morning making these! Time consuming as they are one of the perks of using the wash away stabilizer - you don't have to remove it, so no paper piles and having to pick the little pieces off!  Also, you don't have to use small stitches.  Helps if you have to rip it out!  

If all the stars align correctly and you hold you head at just the right angle...they all come together just like this!  (and even then, they didn't) What a relief!  

If, I am to be honest with you, I'm not even close to done with block #2!  I knew I had to get started on this lesson.  It won't be long and block #3 will be out.  I didn't want to get behind and I hate being late to the party!  For now, I will put these star points away.  I still have to quilt them, which will take a while for me.  Did I mention this is a QAYG (quilt as you go) project?  Yet one more skill to learn!

You get the picture.  This is the pieces together, ready to quilt, ready for another skill to learn and one day master!

I tried to add a movie that I shared on Instagram.  I wasn't sure how to make it work on here, so if you would like to check it out you can see it here:  Technicolor Galaxy

  I DID IT!

Technicolor Madness?!

If I've said it once (every year), I've said it 100 times:  I want to push myself, learn more techniques, try new things this year.  Last year I did my first Block of the Month, so this year I wanted to do another one. When I saw Pile O' Fabric Skill Builder BOM ~ Technicolor Galaxy I thought perfect!  It's my BOM, new techniques, pushing myself all rolled in to one!  

Alyssa out did herself on this design!  It's packed full of techniques I have never tried. When My first thought 'perfect' quickly turned into 'Oh Crap' what have I gotten myself into?

I enrolled in the class and soon decided I should order the front fabric kit. I didn't want to become stressed out thinking about fabric choices.  

Then I realized I needed the templates.  And some of the skill builder supplies.  Another order was placed.  Oh Poop...I should have ordered the preprinted templates of freezer paper and stabilizer...too late for that as there were none available at that time.  Since I ordered packages of the papers to print myself, I did just that.  But I soon realized I didn't order enough stabilizer.  Another order.  Darn it...I ordered the wrong stuff...another order...

SO you can see how this went down!  So much for trying to keep the stress level at a minimum!

I pieced together the templates and was ready to roll!

After piecing the templates, I cut and placed them in their own little bags! I love to be organized and this made me happy!

Supplies!!  Isn't it fun to get new sewing toys?!  I have never used design sheets, Elmer's glue or fusible bias tape web.  This is going to be interesting! 

The front fabric kit.  A beautiful rainbow of colors and fabulous neutrals.  I have a lot to pick from for the color wheel and the rest of the front.  That layer cake of Kona solids made my heart beat a little faster...heaven!

Block #1 ~ The Color Wheel

Wanna talk about intimidation?  Oh, my!  I stared, hemmed and hawed, took a lot of deep breaths and decided to just suck it up and deal!  Pick some fabrics, starch, cut and do it. After all this is about skill building and if it looks like a pile of 'yuck'...so be it!

Good start.  I think.  Do not over think, do not over think, do not over think!

Much better.  It feels pretty good.

I decided on these prints for the next round, but I must have tried 50 different combinations before I settled on this.

Last round...

Okay, I'm satisfied for the most part.  Time to glue and iron the pieces to fabric!

I had so much fun with this part!  A great big puzzle!

And then I got to this part.  The fun abruptly stopped.  Unfortunately I didn't get pictures for the bias tape process.  I will say it was a royal pain in the ass.  Sorry, but it was.  Basically you use the design sheets and with an iron press the tape on the lines of the sheet.  It shapes the tape and in the end it becomes this big piece of circles.  After gently removing it from the design sheet you get to slide it onto the fabric.  

At that point, I was trying to be super, super careful to make sure all the seams were covered.  Move a little here, tug there, repositioning over and over.  And I thought I did just that.  I ironed the bias tape on and began to sew it down. Being careful.  Stay close to the edge.  There were a couple seams that didn't make it, so I ripped and fixed!

Free Motion quilting was next.  Knowing that this is also a Quilt-As-You-Go block, I had to think hard on thread colors and design.  It was going to be seen on the back after all.  

Going for it!  I said 'whatever' I'm using a rainbow of colored thread!  Why not?!  I decided on some basic designs for each round and went to town! 

And, I was okay with it.  My FMQ is getting better, but it isn't perfected.  I kind of dig the rainbow of thread colors.  So I reminded myself that this was a skill builder once again!

Block #1 is done for this month.  Whew ~ yeah, I'm relieved.  I have to think this is the most difficult block of the project.  

After I finished the quilting, I noticed that there were several spots where the fabric seams came up.  The glue didn't hold them down and the bias tape didn't cover/catch them.  And then after burying the threads, even more showed.  Ticked is an understatement. Again...skill builder reminder!

A couple things I would do differently.  Maybe use more glue on the edges of the fabric. Maybe use steam-a-seam.  Most importantly, I think I would iron the bias tape directly on to the fabric instead of shaping it ahead of time.  It would have been easier to make sure the edges of the fabric were covered.     

I am so happy to have started this Skill Builder BOM.  I think it will broaden my knowledge (maybe just enough to get me in trouble), take me out of my comfort zone (and we all need that once in a while) and I get to gain more experience!  YAY to that!

LINKING:

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Needle & Thread Thursday

Whoop Whoop Friday

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Glass Half Full ~ Giveaway!!