"S" is for sewing

Well I've just had 2 lovely "Olive days".......we went to the library, we baked banana cake (with chocolate icing!), we played undressing & dressing granny's old baby doll, we walked, we talked about the early morning fog & autumn coming, we went to Stiener school, we did heaps together!!

And now, I have a few free hours to sew!
First priority was completing my Broken Glass quilt. I sewed like the clappers & made the last 5 blocks. Not sure why I put off doing those last few blocks, but it's all together now & is of a reasonable size. I'm wondering how to quilt it. It's a fairly busy looking pattern so I was thinking maybe something simple ...any suggestions?

I'm enjoying sewing the monthly blocks for the "Classic meets Modern" QAL.
I want to keep my blocks fairly neutral, and am really trying to resist the urge to throw in more of that lovely vibrant eggplant purple! (My plan is to only have a few strategic splashes of it overall). So when April's BOM arrived today - Double Z block, or variation of, which is what I chose to do - I got busy making that too! Fast & simple, and low volume too!

And then, while I was catching up on blogs I enjoy, I spotted this yesterday - Design Your Own Sampler Quilt, which Sarah over @ http://sarahquilts.com/  has put up a great tutorial on.  The idea is to use up orphan blocks or make new ones and, to keep it all simple, choose block sizes that are multiples of each other, e.g. 2-4-6-8-12-16.
I made a quilt along those lines some time ago, a real eclectic mix of leftovers ....

....which is now on Olive's bed & I still love it!
It makes me smile every time I'm over there & make Olive's bed! A bit of time, thought and the addition of black & white fabrics helped make this quilt gel despite such a wild collection of colour! 

But the idea of using up orphan blocks & leftovers in an improvisational style still continues to appeal to me. There are examples everywhere - Kathy from Material Obsession's latest book "Adding Layers" has a lovely stash quilt called "Madness" and it has structure & chaos!  There are of course the quilts from Gees Bend, and Victoria Findlay Wolfe shares ideas of how to mix old blocks with new, and has heaps of ways to use up that stash.   
Sarah's layout for her improv quilt caught my attention! It appears to have some structure, in that it is put together in 4 sections, and I rather like that. So, sidetracked once again, I gathered up some of my old orphan blocks, looked thru' my scrap basket for leftover strips, & studied my selection.
Hm-m--m- I may be some time (sorting this out)..........

So heaps for me to be getting on with, yes?
What are you all busy working on at the moment?
Linking up with Lee @ for WIP Wednesday.

P.S. I'm thinking about going to the Auckland Patchworker's guild meeting this coming saturday - haven't been in years!!  Will let you know how it goes!