out of my comfort zone

Look what happened to my star blocks while I was out of the room...

... no no, just kidding!
But I am wondering though, if a scrappy EPP project will be my 'Plan B' here! 

Getting the right fabric combo for my 'star' project last week is still proving to be a wee challenge
{see earlier posts for more details}
- it's just not coming together as I had imagined
How do you feel when this happens to you? Does it happen to you?
Do you continue & finish something you're not totally 'in love' with,
or do you move onto something more enjoyable?


... in the meantime, I'm lovin' some EPP with all the leftover bits of fabrics J
Linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching over here
and with 'oh scrap' here

creative mission 101

There's a lot of comfort isn't there

 in sticking with those now so familiar, low volume/neutral fabrics for backgrounds, yes?

... and I was going use my leftover lights to fill in the gaps with my latest WiP 

but suddenly that felt, and looked, a bit boring to me!

I did start out with a pattern this time around. It was in pastels (which looked lovely, and was what first attracted me to the pattern!) (go figure!) But I really wanted to use my new selection of VFW brights for this, so I changed a few elements, slowly, one at a time, just trying to make it mine I guess.The problem was that everything was still looking very bright to me, sans the light backgrounds, so what to do?

Thank goodness for a design wall!
This week I've focused more on playing with the values, looking for good contrast. Initially, I was also trying to use everything in my fat 1/4 bundle, but after lots of unpicking, and reshuffling, & even more cutting out, I've fine tuned it a bit. I think I may, just slowly, be getting somewhere now! I'm adding a few pieces of quieter fabrics in here & there to lighten things, without dominating, and I think I'll make the outer edges of more of those hexis more medium/darks.

Still very much a WiP, but have a little look... 

... and there's still a few gaps, still a bit of reshuffling to do,
still lots more sewing of course
but finally, I'm feeling really excited about this!

Linking up this week with myquiltinfatuation for 'Needle and Thread Thursday'

butterflies

Ever spotted something and- despite current WiP's- you just had to have a little play?

I saw a lovely pieced butterfly quilt recently over on one of Anna Maria Horner's sites, 16 beautiful butterfly blocks! The block pattern I immediately recognised as an antique one, but it was made up in Anna's fabrics, a lovely fresh take on an old pattern.

I had made a butterfly block very similar years ago, {see pic#2}. I remember, I was making a lacy, peaches & cream 'wedding' quilt, and this hand stitched block didn't make it in for some reason. 

I had long since lost my original pattern, so I had a little look around and found one similar here, but had a few problems getting it up to size. So I decided to unpick my original lacy block and, between both patterns, I worked it out. Love anything that helps with my machine piecing practice, but - I suspect hand piecing may have been the better way to go here actually.

No plans for this scrappy butterfly block, just a little bit of playful sewing on a Saturday! Will pop it in with my other orphan blocks for now - maybe for an 'everythingbutthekitchensink' quilt one day?

Linking up with Cynthia for 'oh scrap' here
and with 'scraptastic Tuesday' here
What blocks have you been working on? Check out more over here @ 'building blocks Tuesday' 

a bit more #48

Pop on over here to Ann's from fretnotyourself 

- where real butterflies are a hot topic! 

hexi-stars {update}

I shared a few pics earlier in the year when I started this hexi-stars WiP.  And, in-between other projects, it is slowly growing. Mastering those Y-seams took a bit of time... I sewed them together... I unpicked them... I sewed them together... you get the idea, yes?

And then, once I'd sussed out my Y-seams, I found I was starting to run out of fabric! I do tend to jump into things without working out the finer details, you know like - do I actually have enough fabric for this! Maureen from mysticquilter is kindly posting over some of her Victoria Findlay Wolfe stash, a very timely gift as I was running out of options here!

This fabric range is quite, hm-m-m- can I say bold? So now those background triangles are my next design decision...

... I'm thinking, maybe sticking with the VFW range, in assorted leftover lights?

... or maybe adding something slightly different, like this Denyse Schmidt lightish plaid?

Love to hear your thoughts on this.

a bit more #47
I missed this, but here's a monthly linkup
 for sharing your adventures with those Y-seam projects over here at 'Y-seam warriors'
- a great way to get inspired by some creative projects!

And, there's an amazing tutorial for piecing Y-seams  here

a touch of improv

Nothing like a bit of retail therapy to get inspired!

I initially didn't have any plans for my 3 new fabrics- a pretty Riley Blake floral and a couple of matching geometrics. I was simply going fold them up nicely and look at them sitting all pretty on the shelf for a bit. But instead, I began to pull out some scrappy bits of fabrics from my stash, ones that blended, ones that highlighted... and suddenly, I got totally carried away trying out a bit of improv sewing!

I've had a picture of an Amy Butler quilt pinned up on my noticeboard for a little while now, colourful & energetic, made using an eclectic mix of fabrics, just the sort of quilt that I love! There were no measurements or pattern. Feeling creative apprehensive brave, I had a little play, my quick unpick on standby! I started out small, making a little centre section, and then made bigger components as I progressed outwards.

Here's a few progress pics taken over a few days...

my favourite tool has to be my 'design floor'

... I still see a few gaps... now where did I put that initial little centre section...

A fun challenge, making up sections, and finding a way to put them together. It wasn't what you would call' free form' improv, as I did use a ruler, rotary cutter, and I measured each completed strip as I went, to make sure I was keeping within my self-made boundaries.

And of course, things certainly changed along the way, but here is what I ended up with

... h-m-m- what do I call it?

... maybe 'my moderne utility quilt'?

Linking up this week to:
 'oh scrap' here
to 'sew can she' over here

 to #brave quilter here

and to Needle & Thread Thursday here

a bit more #46

*EDIT: just spotted this
Improvisation category from the QuiltCon 2016 exhibitions
part 1 here, and pop over here for part 2
Such a stunning range of styles!

stocking up on a few basics

A parcel arrived in the post this week

a Fat Quarter selection of Anna Maria Horner's new neutral fabrics, 'Skipping Stones'
from hawthorne threads

a  yummy collection of greys & whites conjuring up all sorts of images

Stormy...  Hazey... Bleached...

beautiful neutrals in some of my favourite prints like Eucalyptus, Lineage and Overachiever

- these will be very useful I'm sure!

my Gypsy Wife {playing nicely together}

Back making a few more blocks for my Gypsy Wife quilt this week. This scrappy quilt has to be one of my all time favourites, and looking at the original, I am convinced the more fabrics the better! And the less important any one decision becomes in the big scheme of things!

However, I know from experience that scrappy quilts can get out-of-control quite quickly and can loose their charm quite easily. So, I've been wondering how to make my quilt work without it all looking too messy or too confusing? How do I get my scrappy fabrics to all play nicely together?

Well, I ended up making a few sort of 'rules' for myself and I thought I would share them with you. {he-he- these are all little things I didn't actually put into practise with my first version mind you!} First up, I'm really trying to stick with colours in my 'focus' fabric, 'Tapestry Rose’ by Amy Butler and hopefully using a limited palette will help kept it calm...

Repetition of grey, cream & a touch of white for those vertical strips seemed the perfect opportunity to add another controlling element. And now & then, I'm also using grey or cream/white fabrics as background in the blocks too, to help unite the variety of colours...

For the bigger blocks I'm sticking to mainly one colourway in each of them, and repeating any colour combos I love...

And finally, I decided to make the quilt in sections too, rather than work my way through the book. Not only much more satisfying, but it really helps with checking out how my overall colour balance is going. Tackling section 4 this week, just getting it all to fit together is proving problematical...

... but I'm sure I will get there

... eventually!

The biggest change I wanted this time around was to make this quilt look a bit more 'modern.' My first Gypsy Wife quilt was scrappy, and vintage-y, and chaotic, and I do love it!
But for this version, I wanted to do something different - as in mixing up a selection of more recent designer fabric ranges, including Anna Maria Horner, Amy Butler, Jen Kingwell, Tula pink and a little bit of Liberty. I love seeing how different that effect is!

My earlier #1 GW quilt are the pics on the right, the new versions on the left

Have a little look...

'colour wheel' block 

'crazy Anne' block

the infamous 'pershing' block 

And how about you... how do you make your scrappy fabrics all play nicely together in a quilt?

I would love to hear!

For lots more pics, pop  over to the #gypsywifequiltalong2016 here

Linking up - a little late this week - with Cynthia for 'oh scrap' here