February 21, 2019

Wyoming Valley Block - IB February Challenge/Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop

Note, the fabrics for this project were given to me by Island Batik as part of their ambassador program.

Welcome to my stop on the Dust Off a Quilt Book blog hop 😊 When Bea said she was planning this hop, it sounded like such a great idea I signed up right away. The only question then was, which old book would I use? I have so many great quilting books and magazines there's no way I'll ever use them all, but this was a great excuse to dig one out and make something from it, so thanks for the opportunity, Bea!

If this is your first time here, thanks for stopping by! If you're interested, I'd love to have you join in the Medallion Magic QAL. We're cutting our fabric this month, so there's plenty of time to get caught up before we start sewing next month. 

This quilt is also my February Island Batik ambassador challenge project. Our challenge this month was to create a mini quilt measuring less than 24" x 24". Mine is 12" x 12", so it definitely qualifies! Here's a peek:
Wyoming Valley quilt block mini | DevotedQuilter.com
I chose to use this book by Jinny Beyer. It's a gorgeous book full of eye candy and interesting snippets of information about the blocks and I highly recommend it.
The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns | DevotedQuilter.com
I figured it would take me forever to choose a block, since there are over 4000 blocks in the book and I'd have to consider them all before picking. But then I noticed I had a Post It flag sticking out partway through the book. And, when I opened to the page it marked, I found another Post It covering one block and the flag itself was covering the description of the block.
The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns | DevotedQuilter.com
 Apparently I chose the Wyoming Valley Block for something at some point in the past, but I can't remember when or why. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to make it!
Wyoming Valley quilt block | DevotedQuilter.com
And here's my version 😊 I will say that reversing the light and dark from the block in the picture made it more difficult to get all the units laid out properly. I kept turning the HSTs the wrong way, thinking the blue should match up with the black in the block when really it was the cream that needed to match the black.
Wyoming Valley quilt block mini | DevotedQuilter.com
The orange and cream fabrics were both in the Stash Builder rolls in the Island Batik box of goodies that came a few weeks ago. The gorgeous aqua is from the Blossom line and was leftover from my Sparkler quilt. I don't have much of it left now and that makes me sad. It's such a fabulous colour!

I used my new Accuquilt to cut out all of the pieces for the block, which made quick work of the job. It also meant I had to sew four Y seams, since the orange pieces are parallelograms. It has been a few years since I last sewed Y seams, but I thought I remembered how to do it and the first two I sewed worked perfectly on the first try. The third one took a couple of tries and ended up with a bit of a ripple at the inner point of the Y, but I figured it would look fine once quilted. The fourth one took me more tries than I care to count! I took it apart so many times one evening that I just gave up and left it for another day. Then, when I tried it again, it took another couple of tries before I got it right. Phew! You'd think it would have gone the other way and they'd get easier as I went along, but that definitely wasn't the case. Thankfully, they all looked good in the end and they were even better once they were quilted 😊 I wouldn't even be able to tell you now which one it was that gave me so much trouble.
Wyoming Valley quilt block mini | DevotedQuilter.com
I used a scrap of Warm and Natural batting and I really think the batting scraps are taking lessons from the fabric scraps and have learned to reproduce when I'm not looking. How else would you explain the fact that I keep using batting scraps and yet there always seem to be more??

As per my usual, I worked out my quilting plan as I went. I quilted a quick dot to dot design in all of the cream print triangles first with Aurifil 2311, then did some quick back and forth lines in the orange parallelograms with 2210. I used 5005 to quilt the same dot to dot design in the aqua triangles that make up the center star, then filled the centers with micro stippling. Then I started doing some micro stippling in the rest of the aqua blocks. I hadn't gone far when my bobbin ran out and as I filled it I realized there was no way I'd have enough thread to finish all of the stippling. I don't have a local source for Aurifil, either, so there was no chance of getting more in time to finish for the blog hop. Oh no! I looked through my Gutermann thread and found a spool that was almost the same shade, so I used that in the bobbin and used the bobbin of Aurifil for the top. Saved! I even had enough of the Aurifil left to finish the binding, too.

I wanted something special for the center square, though, and I didn't have enough 5005 for it. Instead, I chose 2210 and quilted a flower, surrounded by more micro stippling. I love how it turned out! I think I even like it better than if I had used the matching thread I'd originally been planning.
Wyoming Valley quilt block mini | DevotedQuilter.com
And, of course, I love, love, love how the quilting looks on the back! I used Island Batik's Rice fabric for the back and I like the subtle spots of colour that show through the quilting in some places. They don't show up well in the pictures, so you'll just have to trust me that they're there and that they're very pretty.
Wyoming Valley quilt block mini | DevotedQuilter.com
Wyoming Valley quilt block mini | DevotedQuilter.com
Wyoming Valley quilt block mini | DevotedQuilter.com
 Be sure to hop over to visit all of the other bloggers taking part in the hop and see what they made from their old quilting books! Again, thanks to Bea for having such a fun idea and organizing the hop so I could make a mini I love so much 😊

Here's the full schedule for the hop...

Monday Feb 18th
Turid at densyendehimmel
Pamela at Pamelaquilts
Selina at Selinaquilts
Kathleen at Kathleenmcmusing

Tuesday Feb 19th
Jennifer at curlicuecreations
Stephanie at stephjacobsondesigns
Kathy at Kathysquilts
Shasta at high road quilter
Theresa at bumbleberrystitches


Wednesday Feb 20th
Sharon at Vrooman’s quilts
Suzy at Websterquilt
Nancy at patchworkbreeze
Karrin at karrinscrazyworld
Denise at craftraditions

Thursday Feb 21st
Leanne at Devoted Quilter
Jennifer at Dizzyquilter
Lee Anne at Podunk Pretties
Lyndsey at Sew Many Yarns

Friday Feb 22nd
Bea at Beaquilter
Barbara at Bejweledquilts
Marian at seams to be sew
Brenda at songbirddesigns

22 comments:

  1. Y-seams can be so much fun, as you found out they don't always cooperate. Love your mini and the quilting gorgeous.

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  2. The back does look amazing. I know what you mean about the subtle colors in those almost white batiks. I love using them but they don't photograph well at any distance. I can see the "rice" pattern nicely in the close-ups though.

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  3. Super Fab work and the FMQ'ing is blue ribbon worthy.

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  4. wow this is stunning. i just love your FMQ. thank you for inspiring and sharing today. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net

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  5. Just fabulous, love your quilting.

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  6. What a gorgeous quilt Leaanne! Beautiful colors and that back...it's as fabulous as the front!

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  7. Great project and lovely quilting! Also great that it's a mini for IB.

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  8. Its beautiful! Love the colors you used!! It makes me want spring to come!

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  9. This looks really beautiful in those fabrics and I love the quilting you did on it!

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  10. Such a pretty mini. Love the fabrics and your quilting is perfection.

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  11. Very nice mini quilt. The colors are wonderful and your stitching is great.

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  12. Your quilting is beautiful. What a star of a quilt. Minis are so much fun.

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  13. Very amazing! Enjoy your weekend! :-) :-) angielovesgary2 atgmail dotcom

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  14. Wow this turned out beautifully! Great quilting and good for you for persevering with the y seams. I have a UFO with mitered corners I may get back to someday. So nice of past you to have done the choosing for future (now current) you. I think I would have given up on those y seams and cut that triangle in two!

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  15. A mini quilt with micro quilting - just perfect! I love it all.

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  16. Truly stellar block. I must admit that I'm lovin it more from the back. Your quilting is wonderful.

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  17. Wow...there's a lot of quilting going on for a 12 inch block. I love that centre flower. Well done.

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  18. I always love seeing close ups of your quilting. It is hard to imagine this is only 12 inches. Beautiful!

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  19. Hi Leanne, what a lovely block. I love your FMQ!

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