Sunrise Sherbet Improv & Online Vacation

I really delighted in participating in the week long Project Quilting prompts at the beginning of this year (I’m still not sure why I waited so long to join in). Because of that joy, I wanted to add in a “just for fun” project each quarter of this year. I knew when I pulled the Sunrise Sherbet palette in May that I’d be using it for my “just for fun” Q2 project, and I had skinny strip improv piecing in mind.

Sunrise Sherbet – Puzzling Together Some Improv Piecing

Thanks to COVID, this project didn’t really get started until the last week and a half of June, but I’ve made good progress since then! Knowing that I wanted to work with skinny inset strips really helped me dive right in. I curated my initial fabric pull down to 3 orange/salmon fabrics, 3 pink fabrics, and 3 yellow fabrics. I decided that the yellow would be for the skinny inset strips, and I cut all of the yellow fabric to either 1″, 3/4″, or 5/8″ wide strips.

Sunrise Sherbet – Improv Piecing Skinny Inset Strips

I also know exactly where I am going to hang this quilt, and that the maximum size that would fit on the wall there would be about 32″ wide by 42″ tall. After piecing the top row (lightest of the salmon and pink with the darkest yellow), I knew that I was going to have to do something to transition to the medium value of all three fabrics while also extending the length of the quilt so that it filled up the wall space as much as possible. Above is the way I puzzled through how I wanted to do the transition.

Sunrise Sherbet – Pieced Quilt Top

Once the general improv rules were firmly set, it really was just a matter of cutting, sewing, pressing, and adjusting based on how things were looking on the design wall. I was having fun, and it went quickly!

Sunrise Sherbet – Pieced and Trimmed Quilt Top

Knowing that I would also be piecing the backing for the quilt from the scraps left over from making the quilt top, I opted to trim the edges of the quilt top a bit more straight. Then I added some securing stitches over each exposed seam allowance on the top and bottom of the quilt and used a 1/8″ securing stitch down the length of both sides.

Sunrise Sherbet – Basted

I didn’t snap a picture of the pieced quilt backing, but it’s not too exciting. I had pretty large cuts of both the medium salmon and pink solids that once sewn together became large enough for the backing. It didn’t take long to get the ~ 33 1/2″ wide by 40″ long quilt basted. I will definitely be trimming the quilt to size after the quilting, and I’ll be able to hold it up to the wall to help make the final trimming choice when that time comes.

Sunrise Sherbet – 50wt Aurifil Thread for Quilting

I looked through my thread stash and was able to come up with 9 50wt Aurifil threads that are reasonably good color matches to the colors in the quilt top:

• 2277 (Light Red Orange)
• 2220 (Light Salmon)
• 2420 (Blush)
• 2530 (Blossom Pink)
• 2435 (Peachy Pink)
• 2423 (Baby Pink)
• 1135 (Pale Yellow)
• 2105 (Champagne)
• 2123 (Butter)

Sunrise Sherbet – 50wt Aurifil Thread for Quilting

It’s really the pinks that don’t have the best color matching, but I’m sure that the threads I have are going to work perfectly to help finish out this quilt.

Online Vacation / Social Media Break

I’m going to be consciously stepping away from the internet for a little under 2 weeks. I think it’s healthy to have social media breaks, and I’m planning on doing some camping with my husband (no cell service anyway) and I will also hopefully have the time to finish the Sunrise Sherbet quilt top as well. That means I won’t be posting to my blog (here) or on social media NOR will I be reading, liking, or commenting on any other blogs / social media posts during that time. I’ll be back on July 17th, and I have quite a few exciting things that I’ll be able to share with you at the end of July. Happy quilting!!