florabunda

Thanks so much for all your helpful comments about my 'florabunda' quilt. The deciding factor in my setting & border decisions was design - no, no, it was which fabric do I have enough of left!

Loving these dense clusters of starflower blocks, using simple shapes & random colour surprises. Such a fun way to use up some of my large scale florals.

It's all coming together nicely now . . .

- the Kaffe Marquee stripe was an afterthought late this afternoon!

 I found heaps of ways to create variety by playing with the value placements in each block.

I'm using Amy from diaryofaquilter size chart for cutting these 'sawtooth star' blocks
{you can find it here}

. . . onto the next border now!

Linking up with Myra here at busyhandsquilts for 'finished or not friday'

and with Cynthia for 'oh scrap' over here

florabunda mish-mash

A few more to add to my 'florabunda' mish-mash collection 

Time to start joining these blocks with stitches instead of using picasa camera collage!

And I guess I should explain . . .
I had this idea to make up a whole lot of blocks, easily recognisable, using just my stash
and with really random fabric choices that played with the value placements in each block.
It's certainly taken my traditional background to another level

#1 sidebyside, alternating light/dark a bit, original idea
* EDIT : with AMH border maybe

However, I seem to be more indecisive than usual and, as you can see,
there's lots of options . . .

#2 onpoint & going for more of an overall merging look

#3 going mad with plaid

What's a girl to do?

'florabunda' {a WiP}

The days of July have just flown by, and it's still wet, and it's still windy here. I'm kinda happy when it rains though, nothing nicer than staying at home & sewing on these really yukky wintery days.
My time this weekend was divided between making up more blocks, and *cutting up more scraps, for making up more blocks. Loving these dense clusters of flower blocks - who knew I had so many floral fabrics in my stash!

 Simple shapes & random colour surprises,

like this block using a little bit of Kaffe, Liberty, 'wild & free' from maureen c and a solid . . . 

Always interesting to check things out with a b&w pic . . .

and this is how it's looking in colour so far . . .

I stumbled across this quote on IG recently -

* "There's a great satisfaction in seeing a thing take shape and form under one's hands. 

Especially if they are made from oddments into something worthwhile."

~ Nella Last, 1945

For more progress pics . . . watch this space and over here on instagram too

Linking up with Cynthia for 'oh scrap' here

sew stitch snap SHARE #8

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Here in NZ we are about 1/3 way through winter. It's been wet, and windy, and cold, we've had our fire going 24/7 these past few days. Finally saw the sun briefly over the weekend, but it's gone again now! I popped up to the village this morning though, and brought back a little bit of happy colour with me . . .

I'm slowly adding to my scrappy mish-mash collection of 'sawtooth star' blocks
Loving these simple shapes & lots of random colour surprises . . .

and a couple more . . .

That's all from me at the moment,

time now for another fortnightly 'Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE' linkup

There were lots of inspiring projects shared last time around.

These 'smitten' blocks made by Rose from somethingrosemade caught my eye
- there's some cute fussy cutting if you look closely.

I think Rose has great taste and mixes her colours well, scroll through her posts
to see heaps more

And what are you working on right now?

Whatever you're sewing or stitching, you can link it up here.

Just follow these simple guidelines:

1. Link up from any post from the past week that features something you have been sewing or stitching. You can write as much or as little about your project as you like, or simply let your photos do the talking.
2. Somewhere in your post, please link back to this post.

3. Please comment on a couple of the other Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE links - its fun to receive comments from new people, and we are trying to encourage people to read blogs and to keep blogging. Hope you find some new inspiration too!

Thanks for joining us again, we can't wait to see what you have all been creating
Julie & Linda

having another go

Last week I was busy trying to blend a great mish-mash of colour together
and went right off track {you can read all about that here!}

And this weekend I'm having another go, just before I tidy all those scrappy fabrics away 

I'm using a free tutorial for these 10" sawtooth star blocks.
Amy from diaryofaquilter has made a great size chart for cutting these blocks here
- you can make them as little as 4" x 4" right up to 20" x 20"
My plan is to set them block to block - sans sashing this time!

. . . ah, now this is a bit more like what I had in mind!
and last week's version will do nicely as a donation quilt I'm sure.
Linking up with Cynthia here for 'oh scrap'
- if you love scrappy projects like me pop on over for a look

my mixed up geese

After all the tricky piecing last week
I just had to take a break and sew a few scraps together.
I've been really *inspired by some wonderful quilters lately and I started thinking
maybe I could be a bit more adventurous!



- so I decided to attempt something just a bit different for me

I'm using a simple pattern called 'mosaic' from sharonhollanddesigns here
but not being a fan of sampler quilts just now, I'm repeating the same block.
The flying geese units are made using the 'no waste' method . . .

I started out cautiously, making up a few blocks that clearly showed the pattern . . .

And then I began to find heaps of ways to create variety

Certainly not everyone's cupoftea and {sigh} I did think twice about posting this quilt!

It's all kinda clashy & mixed up, 

but I was loving how these random fabrics all played together
within this structured layout

Funny how things change along the way though, isn't it? 

I had originally envisaged simply setting all these blocks edge to edge
- just one big mix of saturated colour
 {another idea for another time now}

The more I looked at it,

the more the different framing strips seemed to block the flightpath flow somehow 

     So here's what I ended up doing . . .

- close up of the thin sashing {an old Kaffe} & setting squares

- so nice to see the sun today!

Linking up with Myra for 'finished or not Friday' here at busyhandsquilts

a bit more #64
a little *insta inspiration
from Kathy with her 'get the mix' combos here - her feed is bursting with inspiration
Rachaeldaisy here, such amazing colour play
 and Alison with her stunning "disarray of fabrics"  in her pickledish blocks here
I've been totally inspired by Margaret's fun blocks here
- have a look at her use of scrappy colour! {and thanx for the +ve encouragement}

oh, and one last one - check out these fun wonky 'churn dash' blocks over here

making a come back

A little while ago Glenys and I preordered some fabric together to save on the postage.

It arrived today, Anna Maria Horner's new 'floral retrospective' collection.

. . . just a little obsessed with these fabrics

- can't go very wrong with florals and plaids!

- some of my all-time favourites are back

- oh my goodness, there's a bit of a party happening in the sewing room!

To see more pics of this new/old fabric range pop over here #floralretrospective

Linking up to 'sunday stash' over at mollisparkles here

sew stitch snap SHARE #7

Hello again

This week Julie & I thought we'd start with a question: What's in a name?

Do you ever wonder how or why someone chooses a blog name?

Kokaquilts . . . now why did I use that?

Well, there's two reasons for my choice here. One of the first words my grandaughter Olive learnt to say was "koka" which is Croatian for chicken - hehe nothing at all to do with sewing I know, just being sentimental. Her nonna had chickens running around their back garden and Olive used to run around after them, calling out "koka, koka" - a capivating sight that's for sure.

And the other reason? The Maori language is one of three official languages here in New Zealand, the other two being English and New Zealand Sign Language. In Maori 'koka' means 'mother' so I figured that could be a fitting description for me too  - as in  'mumquilts'  and cooks and cleans and laughs and plays!

Ok I'm wondering, what is the significance of your blog name? Just leave a friendly comment, we'd love to hear from you.

Time now for another fortnightly 'Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE' linkup

There were lots of inspiring projects from our last link up. My pick this time was the WiP Julie from quiltdivajulie has been working on currently.
She is up cycling her husband's shirts to make his retirement quilt, loving her restrained colour palette with this. AND it's going to be two sided - do pop on over to her blog here to read more about it and to see lots more . . . her posts are bursting with inspiration!

I've been adding to my collection of 'whimsy' blocks this week. I am enjoying machine piecing these 9" blocks together, lots of fun matching up just two fabrics each time.
It is a bit of a fiddly block, but I think that's what is keeping me so interested. And, as with most things, the more I make, the easier they do get. I think I need about 35 altogether.
Loving this pattern by @judynewman, it's featured in her new book, along with many more very tempting quilts.

and a little block combo . . .

And what are you working on right now?

Whatever you're sewing or stitching, you can link it up here. 

Just follow these simple guidelines:

1. Link up from any post from the past week that features something you have been sewing or stitching. You can write as much or as little about your project as you like, or simply let your photos do the talking.
2. Somewhere in your post, please link back to this post.

3. Please comment on a couple of the other Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE links - its fun to receive comments from new people, and we are trying to encourage people to read blogs and keep blogging alive too. Hope you find some new inspiration too!

Thanks for joining us again, we can't wait to see what you have all been creating
Oh, and we'd also love you to share with us the reason for your blog title
Julie & Linda