another week, another batch of blocks

 

 *backyard summer bouquet inspo

After relooking at my inspo pic, 

I've started adding a few warm sunflower-golds into this next batch ...

Broken Dishes is a simple classic traditional block, perfect for scrappy quilt lovers. I'm using lots of fabrics in a bunch of fun bright colours. Inspiration for the quilt and *colour palette from Amanda at prairie quilt co.

**************

While I've been stitching up these simple sweet 'broken dishes' blocks, I have been thinking. Mainly about what my next project could be. Using leftovers & stash of course.

I do love this little colour story in blush pinks, caramel, peach,

with small splashes of navy blue & muted green. 

Trouble is that this is a fabric pull sans pattern. 

And I don't have any clear ideas of what to make. Yet.

Which comes first ... the pattern or the fabric? (I'm thinking I may be team both!)

Love to hear what you think? 

broken dishes: update

I want to say a big thank you for all the kind messages I have received about my latest 🌟quilt top.

And now I'm back sewing simple 'broken dishes' blocks, see here for earlier details.

The. Perfect. Scrappy. Stash-buster!

last batch of blocks for this week ...

Loving this mix of modern & traditional 

And it’s been fun deciding which fabrics should go together in each block

I've decided to stitch my blocks together into bunches of four as I go, with scrappy sashing for the win 

Here's hoping it's plain sailing when I assemble everything together later 

🤞

stars🌟 update

 

perfectly imperfect

- there were a couple of spots where I had to join tiny pieces to get the required sized rectangle. 

🪡🧵✄

It’s always a fun challenge trying to work out ways to combine lots of different fabrics

… sometimes it works, sometimes not!

Very happy with how this 🌟quilt top turned out though 

(see back here for a few more details).

stars, of the colourful kind

I have fabrics in my stash that are about maybe 20 years old. And, like many, I've been focused on using up what I have here. Hence my eclectic looking style, it's a bit mix & match, lots of scrappy colourful chaos, and finding surprises that I'd forgotten all about along the way!

I'm going with a combo of 'sawtooth stars' and 'wheel of fortune' blocks. Finding a bunch of small fabric packs from different older "tired" fabrics recently got me thinking about ways I could use them. My stash is peppered with Anna Maria prints, so I decided to use AM's "social climber" as my accents. I'm trying to bring in a bit of a colour connection between all the prints, and with lots of colour play hopefully things will really start to sparkle! 

looking for those colour connections ...

and then there were four ...

Recipe for when you receive repurpose find a bag or two of “tired” scraps ...

 mix in some accents 

and add in deliberate setting triangles or sashings.

Nearly there! 

sidetracked, again!

My recent tidy-up of scraps +stash has offered up a sprawl of possibilities, 

I bet your stash does too.

One good thing about a sort out is sometimes you find something you think you lost!
I knew I had a small basket of older vintage-y fabric somewhere, such a nice surprise to finally find it again. I had signed up for a 10" squares fabric pack, one a month, for nearly a year, many years ago. Occasionally there were fabrics I wouldn't have chosen but, as you know, I have a soft spot for scrappy.

If you’re anything like me, you’d get sidetracked by something you found too, yes? Initially I just started by pulling out some other fabrics that could possibly work, contemporary larger rosy florals teamed up with the older itty-bitty prints. I was going with a colourful mix & match scrappy vibe. 

I decided to incorporate them into a star quilt.

Fast forward to now and my sewing machine is back home, and I was able to just jump straight in.

Stars are a real favourite of mine✨. I just love them. They’re such a fun make, with so many opportunities to play around with colours, prints and shapes.

I'm also planning on combining my stars - inspo from @stitchesfoulweather. Lots of sawtooth stars mixed in with a few wheel of fortune blocks, both have the same sized center squares which appeals to me.

 

Enjoy the progress photos ...

Five #sawtoothstar blocks so far

This 2nd block is called the #wheeloffortuneblock - tutorial can be found at @fabric406 

Yes, I like where this is going💕

Linda

fabric everywhere

 

 *backyard bouquet inspo

Hello, hello. As I was cutting all those strips for my courthouse steps blocks (see my last post), I was going to tidy-as-I-go. But then it struck me that these fabrics were way too pretty to tuck away again quite so quickly. So, I also started cutting out 10" squares if the piece was big enough. 

I decided I'd make traditional broken dishes blocks in a bunch of fun bright fabrics in an effort to use up more of my stash. Inspiration for the quilt and *colour palette from Amanda at prairie quilt co.

I have heaps of cut out squares but only one block finished! 

Because sadly, everything came to a screaming halt. I had to take my sewing machine into the repair shop to be serviced and hopefully get the clunky sound in the bobbin repaired.  

Without my sewing machine here, it was time to start tidying up the sewing room. There's fabric everywhere at present - overflowing baskets, random fabric stacks, messy fabric spaghetti piles of leftover strips ...

... I'm in my happy place, 

sifting & sorting through this sprawl of possibilities

🌟

colour splash

As you know, I started working on a scrappy courthouse steps block quilt this month as a way to “use up” my scraps. The courthouse steps block is a real favourite one of mine, I've made a few now.  And I've been enjoying an hour here & there to work on this WiP, stitching one block a time. 

I'm using a bright & pretty scrappy mix of fabrics, ones I've had for a while. There's a combo of floral RRS, Rifle Paper Co. & Heather Ross for the main fabrics, with coordinating blenders. I love how each block gets its own moment. No overthinking it. Just a big splash of colour & contrast.

Love making something colourful & (potentially)useful out of leftovers in the stash, don't you? 

Linda