Saturday, January 9, 2016

Joy in the Evening

"Joy in the Evening" is my version of the "Joy in the Morning" quilt pattern by Gayle Bong, which featured yellow as the background for the bright squares.  I went with a deep teal/almost navy blue instead. 

Interestingly, it's what I used in one of my earliest quilts, a Bonnie Hunter Chunky Churndash, which remains one of my favorites.  I was happy to find that fabric was still available at Jo-Ann.

The flimsy measures about 51-1/2 x 61-1/2.  It'll be a happy little quilt! 

On the Quilty 365 project, I've found it difficult to make one circle a day—as in just one.  

They're kind of like potato chips in that way.  So much fun!

I've decided to do all the circles in one color per month.  January is blue (or mostly blue).

There may be a month (or two) of "multi" as the color, or "anything goes."


In scrounging around for light backgrounds, I took some light squares out of part of a charm pack Marei had included in her fabulous scrappy treasure box.  Since the rest of my backgrounds had been prewashed, I hand-washed and dried the dozen or so charm squares as well.

Interesting to note the amount of shrinkage.  The prewashed squares are on the left for comparison.  

They lost on average about 1/4 inch in length along the grain line and 1/8 inch in width.

Now I wouldn't prewash a whole pack of charm squares if I was making something with them all, but I'm glad I did it for the handful of charm squares I'll use in this project, to hopefully minimize puckering around the appliqued circles.

Have you ever prewashed your precuts?  Feel free to 'fess up!

Linking to:  Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

6 comments:

Marei said...

I truly love "Joy in the Evening". It is perfect, Paulette! Makes me smile to see my fabrics put together in such a wonderful way. As for prewashing precuts....not something I'd want to try. Can you imagine prewashing jelly roll strips? Yikes?

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

I don't pre-wash anything....... but I have a friend who pre-washes everything so we cancel each other out. I figure that if something is going to shrink, it will all shrink equally and together.

Love your Joy in the Evening quilt. Looks like a great way to use a lot of scrappies!

glen in louisiana

Lara B. said...

Joy in the Evening is the perfect name Paulette - it is a very joyful quilt!
The circles are coming along beautifully! Love your idea of changing colors each month.

Yes, I prewash precuts... all but jelly rolls. I found that even charm squares shrink a surprising amount and not even all the same within one charm pack. I would rather shrink the fabric first than have it happen after piecing the quilt. I wish I was brave enough not to prewash, because it would certainly save time.

Lesley Gilbert said...

Love the finished look of your quilt.

I read your post the other day about how you made your circles and I showed it to my daughter, commenting that I might give this a go. I can understand why you'd wash those charm packs, seeing as your other fabric had already been pre-washed. 90% of my fabric is charity/thrift shop bought quality duvet covers, which have already been washed in usage, but I wash them again anyway, so I have no probs about shrinkage :)

Kaja said...

Joy in the Evening looks great and I love that background fabric. I also like the one colour a month idea for the circles - they are addictive, aren't they? I seem to have ended up putting circles into everything this year and I'm sure this is why!

sewyouquilt2 said...

love your Joy in the Evening. and love your idea for the 365 circles. I am alternating color backgrounds for the month. it is so fun to see everyones different ideas and they are all so nice.