Ben Millett Studio

A tip I’m sharing for December’s Aurifil Artisan challenge is how I’m now storing my threads.

I primarily use a cone of 2021 in 50 wt for piecing, so the few other 50 wt colors on spools are in a small tub in a drawer by my machine (not pictured). This same tub had held all my various thread colors and weights, and for years I resisted getting thread racks. This year my collection reached a quantity and variety that necessitated a change. I now have my non-50 weight threads on a rack. This helps me to see what I have, especially when the labels are visible from the top. My most-used colors of 12 wt are across the top three rows, with all additional 12 wt spools organized by color and spool size. Any other spools of various non-50 weights are grouped in the last rows of the rack. For longarm quilting, I keep Forty-3 and 50 wt on a separate rack made for cones, next to the longarm and its bobbin winder.

Detail of “If I Had Said Yes, Variant 5”.
This view includes sections of four blocks.

Details of “If I Had Said Yes, Variant 2”.
These two detail views include the corners of 7 blocks, with one block captured in both photos.

I mentioned this earlier, but in addition to being a planner and reference guide, also has a monthly sampler. The blocks use different techniques and can be a way of finding out which patchwork methods you like to work with most.
In addition to the block pattern itself, each designer shares a few tips to help with the block and with patchwork in general. I’ll be sharing some of those tips in a post tomorrow. And there’s a blurb about each designer so you can get to know about them.
No, I don’t usually cover the pattern with my fabric and supplies when I’m making a block. I just wanted to make sure the secrets contained within the planner stay secret.

Palm Spring photo dump.

A few favorite views and tastes during our time away. We went to celebrate Catlin’s birthday, our 6 & 10 year anniversaries, and being done with all the excitements of the year. Even though I thought I was ready to be out and about, my body had a different idea, as I twisted my left ankle not two minutes into our hike in Joshua Tree. Thankfully our resort had amongst its visitors an ER doctor, a son of a nurse, and a couple that believed strongly in the healing properties of gummies, all of whom were very attentive with commands and medicines. We didn’t have much planned going into the trip, which was for the best as we were forced to spend time lounging in and alongside the pool.

As with other trips, I’ve prepped a blog post of the things we saw, did, and ate.

Ode to Ellsworth 2 & -2, reverses
One benefit of thread matching is that there's a gap in the run on the back, communicating on the reverse the shape of the patches from the front.

Day 2 of brings us Mystic Cat Sees All from me.

I designed the block to be a companion to my block from last year's Spooky Season Sampler block (Put a Spell on You).

Riley Blake Designs provided the fabric I used for this sample.

Quilting on Lokean Variant 616 started with using my Moxie and to baste 1 inch channels. I initially quilted in between the rows, eyeballing the middle of the lanes. I got most of the want through the in-betweens, but had to take a break while I was going through chemo. My fingertips became much too sensitive/painful. About two weeks after chemo ended was when I attempted using the needle again. I finished the in-betweens and then started replacing the basting lines. I unpicked about a quarter or a third of each basting thread, quilted, unpicked the next quarter/third, quilted, etc., until the row had been replaced.
I’m really happy with my choice to quilt with yellow and by hand. It changes the look of the quilt compared to the other Variants. It adds to the lived-in quality that the dyed fabric brings to the quilt.