a spot of Wednesday morning quilt texture

Oh my, the temperatures have certainly dropped here in NZ this past week, two quilt weather for sure! I rummaged around in the cupboard, pulled a quilt out and popped it on the bed last night. 

And so now on the bed, I've teamed up my scrappy log cabin quilt with this 'Star Crossed' quilt {finished back in 2018}, from the book 'Utility-style quilts for everyday life' by Sharon Holland.

Love having lots of quilts around here so I can mix and don't match, and very much love the contrast between these two quilts!  

Here's a few photos of quilty texture in the morning sunshine …

Loving the wide borders in this quilt, 

 they add a nice contrast to some of the more playful elements of the star blocks.

I’m super happy with the contrast between the cream backing fabric vs. the scrappy patchwork blocks too

- I haven't used a cream backing for years now {wink wink}  

- a few detail pics of my scrappy log cabin quilt 

My 'star crossed' quilt has lots of elements that I'm crushing on just now … a gently muted palette, a few quirky vintage favourites mixed up with a few more 'modern' fabrics, a couple of ginghams, a plaid, and several different blending solids {years old} to break things up … all of which hint that this quilt was made from stash & scrap materials.

I do love to play with colour, cut fabrics up, & stitch them back together. I am not a machine quilter though, I'm not very good at it. And all those wide sashings & borders in this quilt equaled lots of -ve space, which I had no hope of filling with my limited straight line quilting. 

Sew sometimes, you need a little help to get that "finish" and so I sent this large quilt off to  Leeanne from quiltmekiwi.

I also tend to prefer not so dense quilting usually, but I think Leanne’s decisions were spot on with this quilt! And, I'm sure you'll agree, it is beautifully custom quilted. Thank goodness Leanne's not too far away to add some yummy quilty texture to my makes. 

Binding hand stitched by me! Finished quilt measures 62" x 88"

Linking up with Kelly for NNT here and with Wendy over here for this weekend's 'peacock party

Until next time, Linda

weekending

Ah yes, it's the weekend. 

My post today is a real mixed bunch of sewing … reading … eating!

You may remember a couple of weeks ago, I had a yummy fabric pull and had started cutting … but then I just didn’t like any of the ideas! My design wall was full of trial blocks, strips, and squares oh my!

And then... My friend Glenys told me about the new quilt pattern from Emma @treehouse textiles, which I downloaded, the long weekend quilt. It's basically four large trip around the world blocks, each with concentric rounds of colour. 

I also checked out another idea @sewcraftyjess, where, back in 2014, Jess had made a giant granny square quilt, using large 5.5" squares. 

Fast forward to this weekend, and I decided to relook at things. I cut out a bunch of 4" squares and started getting some fabric combinations up on the design wall, and I did a spot of tweaking as I progressed  played.

Hope you enjoy my process & progress pics, makes for a much more interesting post rather than simply showing a “finish” {And, wink wink, you'd be waiting for ages between posts otherwise!}. Here's where I ended up this weekend …

Et voila …

It's a real mish mash of ideas & inspiration - but what a great way to put all my scraps to good use!

I'm off now to cut out a zillion white "sashing" squares 

Linking up my sewing progress with Cynthia here for "oh scrap". 

✂️✂️✂️

I also finished a great read, "These Silent Woods" by Kimi Cunningham Grant. For eight years Cooper & his daughter have lived in isolation, no electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world. And that's just the way Cooper wants it as he has a lot to hide. 

Suddenly though, everything about their safe haven is threatened. Beautifully written, this is a poignant story of survival, sacrifice, and how far a father will go when faced with losing it all. 

It is one of those books that has stayed on my mind for days after finishing, best read in ages ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Did someone say curry night? We love a curry night and tonight it's a chickpea, lentil & pumpkin Dahl. I kept the curry sauce quite simple, frying onions, garlic and ginger, and then toasting off the other spices before adding the tomatoes, lentils, pumpkin, chickpeas. Spinach was added just before serving. I mixed up some yoghurt with grated cucumber topped with mint, and served it all with steamed basmati rice and poppadoms. EDIT: the leftovers went to my daughter #mealsonwheels 😀😍😋

Happy weekending 

Linda

checkers: a simple scrap dance

I've made more progress with my Pas de Deux, a ballet inspired sampler quilt. It’s a rather different sort of sampler quilt, and - after a few panic moments -  I'm now enjoying the challenge. Loving seeing how the colours & values play together, it's {wink wink} very different to when I started out that's for sure! 

Rachel's monthly installments {at stitchedincolor} are full of inspiration and ideas for getting that over-all harmony happening, and I'm learning A. Lot!

This time with my Pas de Deux ensembles, it’s all about starting to make a few connections between the groups. I had made up a "checkers" block a while back, but it seemed way too dark. So I had another look into my scrap baskets, and another ensemble was under construction earlier this week. 

It's a simple scrap dance, lots of 2.5" squares, and guided by Rachel's latest 2.0 version, I went for a fun gentle faded look. My "Checkers" block is an assortment of blues combined with a blend from white to cream to pink to plum. Enough chatting, enjoy the latest pics.

"Checkers" block ✅

I started with pale colours at the top

because of the pale colours in the background of my earlier Sawtooth Burst block directly above it.

Wedge Cross blocks ✅

Evie spent a bit of time depapering my FPP blocks for me

 - she said "It's so satisfying granny"

I'm using snippets of this early AMH fabric to help connect things too …

And here's where I am at now, all my blocks so far, all laid out on the "design bed" …

Evening Star block  ✅

- the light pink along the edges will 🤞 flow nicely into the surrounding quilt colours.

 

Oh my it's exciting, we're nearly halfway there now! 

I have the rest of the month to think of my next ensembles and which colours I need to repeat. 

Am also wondering, since it's a ballet-inspired sampler, about a suitable name for my version 

🩰

Sharing my progress here @ To Do Tuesday

and with Wendy for this weekends 'peacock party' over here

Until next time, Linda

pas de deux: playing catch-up

Well, here’s more of my pas de deux work-in-progress. I'm a little behind, been busy with family, etc. The May little blocks are divided over 2 areas and I am using the same colours + fabrics for those 2 places but turning them around. I do love how these wedge cross blocks came together today.

I seemed to have missed the bit in the instructions about when to take out the papers though 😂

… guess that's a job for tomorrow.

A sampler quilt can be quite tricky, just not knowing how things will look at the end. Rachel's monthly installments are full of inspiration and ideas for getting that over-all harmony happening. 

I’m starting to have fun with my colour journey now, though {wink wink} it's very different to when I started out that's for sure! 

Narrowing down my palette to assorted pinks darkening slightly to plum/rose, and lots of blues++ with little accents of gold/citrus certainly has helped.

The other thing that occurred to me was that no one block really needs to be amazing. They work together to make an impact. I'm also mixing in more solids, they seem to give the prints room to breathe! And of course the repetition of fabric combos helps with harmony and all that, yes?

Really, all the different ensembles are delightful as individual elements, 

so fingers crossed, bringing them all together in December won't be too much of a challenge!

Linking up with Kelly for NNT here

and with Wendy for this weekend's 'peacock party' over here

Linda