maximum scrappiness

I've put this off for long enough. My daughter needs wants another quilt! She likes her quilts big ... big enough to go down over the sides & bottom of their king-sized bed, so, it needs to be huge!
I faffed around for days coming up with different ideas, but it wasn't an easy decision.
I decided to go scrappy of course. What really troubled me were the proportions of a large quilt & boredom setting in while making it.

I ended up settling on the "me sew happy" quilt from these clever hands. It looks like it'll be a great pattern to use up some of my stash & scraps. The original is made up of 16 simple large blocks ... and I think repeating a few more blocks and/or sashing could work very well to bring it up to a larger size.

 

This idea checks lots of boxes for me:

Colourful ✅ 

Scrappy ✅

Low volume prints ✅

Using fabrics I already have ✅

Fast & easy ✅

Fun! ✅

Keen to begin, I headed to my fabric baskets for some afternoon sorting. I'm using mainly small to medium sized prints, lots of colourful & busy Kaffe, AMH, & Jennifer Paganelli fabrics from my stash.

After a few epic cutting out sessions, I'm now busy sewing my blocks. When making my small hourglass blocks I did start trying to be matchy-matchy - it's kinda automatic isn't it - but after cutting out, slicing, mixing up, sewing, cutting again, then pairing up to sew again, I gave up! There were heaps of them! I focused on getting 4 different prints in each little block for maximum scrappiness. 

Super happy with the play of the occasional lighter, low volume spaces amongst all my mulit-coloured brights!

 

To sash or not to sash?

Either way, the end is in sight!

 Linda

another finish

What? Another finish?  I started this 'pinwheels & stars in pastels' quilt in September 2022 and I'm happy to say that why yes, I've finally quilted and bound it. Another quilt top ticked off my long list!

 
I went with a vintage inspired whisper palette in pink, mustard & blues, with little accents of raspberry. The backgrounds are a selection of different whites, all of which give a tiny bit of movement and bit of a make-do look to the quilt. 

The fabrics are a mix of designers I had in my stash, including some from my small collection of Karen Lewis fabrics, along with a Liberty, AMH ... and an early Outback Wife print, I love it when the fabric kicks off the story!

I was quite intentional about the light - medium values of the sawtooth star fabrics, and I wanted the chain pattern happening with the dark - medium pinks too. So, some of the pinwheel blocks are definitely high contrast, but not nearly all, resulting in a subtly broken chain.

The quilt back is a sweet vintage sheet, a super way to repurpose a vintage sheet and I just love the worn-in feel it automatically gives to a quilt! 

I machine quilted lots & lots of simple straight lines. For my binding I chose an AMH pretty floral stripe in pale pink, with its larger-scale darker floral design breaking up nicely in the narrow segments of the binding. Finished quilt measures 60" x 48".  

- it's on the spare bed already!

Until next time,

Linda

a few finishes

I have a few "finishes" to share this weekend.

First up, a finished quilt top ... After top stitching all my fans down (I used a silver thread which tends to disappear✅), I added two borders to my "fantales" quilt during the week. I do love a little animal print with the florals, don't you? Finished quilt top measures 72" x 72". 

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I'm in a 'binding quilts' phase at the moment too ... and my Kaleidoscope quilt is now all finished! I used a large selection of multi-coloured AMH florals in these blocks - using the good stuff up - along with a few other light bits & pieces that are essential to get that unexpected delightful secondary pattern happening.

As I was getting my quilt ready to send off to Leeanne @quiltmekiwi for some quilting, I decided to add a scrappy border, and am super happy with it now.
I pieced together a few larger pieces of fabrics for the backing. I used a selection of fun, bright multicoloured prints, it's a real anna maria party in the quilt back!

I chose 'ripples' an E2E pattern for the quilting, really pleased with Leeanne's machine quilting on my quilt. It has a fantastic modern vibe - with just enough texture and movement but leaves my quilt soft and drapey. 

My daughter was over this morning while I was auditioning for bindings, and she chose a sweet pink AMH fabric, which works well front & back.  Finished quilt measures 65" x 56". 

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And I've finished three books recently that I thought I'd share too ...

'Good Bad Girl' by Alice Feeney is a drama about the sorrows and traumas of deeply flawed mothers and daughters. Twenty years ago after a baby is stolen, a woman is murdered in a care home... these 2 crimes are related in some way, and the story has many twists & turns as you work your way through the good and the bad. It's a complex, multilayered domestic thriller, and nobody can be trusted. 

I read these next two books one after the other! 

'Wake' by Shelley Burr is set in New South Wales, in the small town of Nannine. Mina McCreary's twin sister disappeared 19 years ago when they were 9 years old, and Mina has never quit looking for her. Private Investigator Lane Holland appears on the scene hoping to solve this cold case and collect the million-dollar reward.
This was an excellent Aussie mystery, which drew me in from the very first line.

'Ripper' is Shelly Burrs second novel, another absorbing Australian rural mystery-thriller. Rainer is a small town struggling to stay afloat after three murders were committed seventeen years ago. Local cafe owner Gemma and her police officer husband Hugh are still haunted by the trail of death seventeen years ago ending at Gemma’s little teashop.

The town is about to welcome a tourism company keen to cash in on the town's murderous past, but the tour operator is killed by a Ripper copycat ... and Gemma is drawn into solving the murder.
There are plenty of secrets in this small town, that's for sure!

I found both these books elaborately plotted in such a clever way, certainly two gripping novels I didn’t want to put down. Pop them on your TBR list!

Happy stitching & reading, Linda

prints-on-prints

I'm enjoying this.

Here's a few prints-on-prints progress pics ...

- trialing a few border ideas

- on the design floor

Sheena’s "Fantales" pattern is a super vintage-inspired improv idea. There's plenty of scope to put your own slant on things, and I am setting my large 14" fan blocks out a little differently to the pattern.  

I decided to use the yellow spot fabrics as backgrounds to give my scrappy fan blocks an automatic sense of unity. And, I'm using additional teal prints as little extra 'pops' of colour accent in my quilt. 

For my fan blades I'm alternating between warm & cool florals, with my framing borders in assorted geometrics, all fabrics from my stash. 

Nothing I love more than modern, vintage and quirky prints all mixed up together! 

Borders next, Linda

fabulously fun fabric fest

 I've been collecting yellow spot fabrics for a while now.

Over the years I've discovered there's many ways you can play to get some cohesiveness happening in an eclectic happy scrappy quilt like this one. 

Such as ... maybe limiting your colour palette or having a focus fabric to work from ... or repeating the fabrics so there is some semblance of continuity within the pattern, a bit of a mix and match approach if you like ... or simply adding a single constant colour somewhere - very much like what I am doing here with my yellow spots.

I'm faffing around with another WiP, vintage improv style blocks using the 'fantales' quilt recipe from the talented Sheena over on ig here. These large 14" fan blocks are a terrific way to use some of those skinny scraps we tend to accumulate. And I'm mixing it up, using my vintage stash with new fabrics, yes, it's leftovers again!

Here's a few progress pics from the sewing room, four blocks done✅ 12 more to go.

A fab fun put together of anything goes and I think it's all working beautifully so far.

Until next time, Linda

"leftover stars"

This was a project purely for the pleasure of playing with some of my leftover older (mainly) Kaffe fabrics and batik scraps that have been in my stash for ages. Just like the Ohio Star block quilt, this Sawtooth Star block is super easy to make, and I very quickly had quite a number of them made from my stash pull.

When I started making these 10" stars, I had a few different ideas about setting options. And it took me a while to actually decide, {wink wink} I'm sure you've all experienced brain teasers like this too!  
I recently stumbled across a new-to-me approach, a "recipe" for when you find that collection of “tired & old” scraps - add a deliberate sashing and mix in an accent fabric✅ - and voila, one “leftover stars” quilt top.

Yes, I think this could work ...

... and it did!

Love to hear how you use up your leftovers & scraps too.  

Just before I go here's one final pic. Guess what's happening next in the sewing room? I've been collecting yellow spot fabrics for a while now and have found the. perfect. project for them!

It's another good one for leftovers & scraps too.

Pop back soon to see more,

 Linda