Monday, 16 March 2020

crooked courthouse steps















Completely inspired by Margaret from semichaotic - shamelessly copying joining in with her fun, funky courthouse steps, she's made an amazing 182 blocks!  Free pattern from Bonnie at quiltville.blogspot. The pattern suggests 7 1/2" blocks, however I'm making mine 12" blocks, they are quick to sew and I'm using up heaps of my thin strips.
Like Margaret, I’m using anything and everything, digging deep into my string & strip baskets and dividing fabrics into “neutral” and “others relatively solid or bright” - with no colour scheme as such.

However, it's kinda hard getting these to go wonky. I need to practise more at letting things organically lean this way or that {wink wink}, or maybe trim things at a slight angle to get my block started off in a fun direction. Or, even try aiming for the centre square not to be dead in the middle when I trim my finished block to the right size.

My next batch looked just a little bit wonk-ier . . .





and down on the design floor . . .





With todays batch, I used more stripes & checks to counteract the 'feeling too flowery' look. They mixed in well . . .








Many of us are spending extra time staying at home, it's trying times for sure and it's hard not to feel overwhelmed. And it feels good to have some comfort sewing underway, easy mindless sewing, no thoughts apart from which fabric strip to add on next.

Not too sure how big this is going to be, but I can guarantee more blocks coming soon 
. . . until next time, Linda

9 comments:

Claire said...

I had the same problem with wonky triangles. They wanted to end up symmetrical. Claire aka knitnkwilt

Kleine Vingers said...

Nice blocks, those will turn into a lovely quilt.

Karen S said...

It is a fun block to play with. My blocks go wonky when I try to make then straight. maybe that is the trick to it.

Quiltdivajulie said...

I, too, am seriously tempted by Margaret's example. Your blocks look marvelous. Take care of yourselves and let the stitching help sooth the raw edges.

Julie said...

This will be a real scrappy quilt - definitely not terribly wonky though. I've got books, gardening and sewing to do if I need to self isolate.

Ann said...

I really need to clear out my scraps soon and you are inspiring me to consider a leader/ender project for that. What fun to use every last bit.

Mystic Quilter said...

Love the wonky blocks Linda - saw the Instagram post from Margaret and loved it, now seeing yours I have an idea for my overload of scraps. I think this would be an ideal project to keep our minds and hands busy at this time.

Ruth said...

Checkout the wonky courthouse blocks over at Joscountryjunction.com! She made an entire quilt with them and they are so fun to look at! She lists her quilts at the side of her blog so you can click and find what you want to see.

gayle said...

Oh, what fun! (I have a hard time with wonky, too. And I feel guilty if it seems like I'm forcing the wonky...)