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

decisions decisions

Hello hello. If you pop by often, you will already know that I tend to just jump right in with the quilts that I start, A. Lot. Of. The. Time, and this time is no different!

A few weeks ago I started out with a fabric pull, one that I've been slowly adding to as it sat here on my table. I decided that my main colours would be pink, brown and dark blue. So that quickly sorted out my cohesive "planned part".  

But as to the direction part? I had in mind to make a 'granny square' quilt, similar to those crocheted granny square blankets, {wink wink} everything old is new again! 

However, once I started googling I found ideas... too many ideas actually... turns out there's quite a few ways I could approach this! Square or on point? Using individual squares or adopting the strip piecing method? With sashing or without?  Can you relate?

Inspired by Jaynes 'Great Granny' quilt {that I spotted here at Jaynes Quilting Room} I jumped right in over the weekend and started to play with these fabrics.

First up, a 'Granny Square' block {free tutorial over at blueelephantstitches} and then I made up a 'Sassy Granny' block with scrappy background, pattern from 'Anthology' QAL I did a couple of years ago. 

I am very happy with how these fabrics combine together, but truth be told, I wasn’t loving either of these trial blocks once I'd made them up.

Then I got sidetracked slightly, and wondered about using these same fabrics in another scrappy trip quilt instead? After all, all three of my previous TATW quilts have now been gifted. Maybe I need to make one every year or so, it is such an enjoyable quilt to make.

My design wall is full of trial blocks, and strips, and squares oh my!

Still very undecided which way to go. 

But I'll be super happy if I can salvage this idea with a few thoughtful changes, so I'll persevere.

'Cos I really do want to make a granny quilt now - of some kind! 

Linda

bookclub tonight!

Looking forward to bookclub tonight.

Here's a few recent reads - some good, one not so good.

I enjoyed this big family saga about parents David and Marilyn - still madly in love after 40yrs - and their four daughters. It’s a lengthy book that explores family love, romantic love, sisterly devotion and dysfunction set in Chicagoland... and, it covers all the seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bourgeois couple and their unruly daughters. Beautiful writing & great character development.

* * * *

I loved this one! The Spy's Wife by Fiona McIntosh was a great read. From the wide swept moors of the Yorkshire dales to the noisy beer halls of Munich, this is a lively thriller that kept me second guessing until the end.

Fiona's tale "follows stationmaster’s daughter Evie Armstrong who meets and falls in love with the mysterious Max, who often passes through her northern England station, in 1936. The pair become engaged in days and just as their happiness knows no bounds Max is arrested as a German spy. Evie convinces the British government to let them establish themselves in Munich, with herself acting the part of the perfect German wife in a bid to find evidence of Germany’s escalation to war".
 

* * * *

Sara Foster’s The Hush, is set in a post-covid world. It's a dystopian (new age sci-fi) novel that is highly believable in many aspects. We find ourselves in the near future England where, seven years after covid, everyone is also dealing with rising sea levels and floods caused by climate change.
There are new laws to govern everyone. Being monitored by the government with smart watches and with babies not breathing after birth, the country has been thrown into turmoil as several pregnant teenagers have vanished. I'm sure it will capture your interest and keep you guessing.

I have to admit though, I'm not sure about how I feel about this novel, it's unsettling to say the least, and I'm hoping to discuss this one at length at bookclub tonight.

*UPDATE: conversation was interesting and we were very divided on this one. 

* * * *

This is an intriguing psychological thriller from Jean Hanff Korelitz that immerses the reader into the world of writers and publishing, an area totally foreign to me.

Jacob Finch Bonner has a well received published book behind him but has been unable to get much attention for his further attempts at the next great novel. Years later he's still struggling, working at jobs connected to writing, becoming the cliché of "those who can, do, those who can't, teach".
Then he encounters Evan Parker, who has a story that's going to be The. Next. Best. Seller. A few years later, when Evan dies before getting around to writing his novel, Jacob steals his idea.

Who owns the plot to a story? There's a real underlying tension throughout the book, and I was curious to see how things panned out in the end.

 

* * * *

Do you think you know your neighbors? A shooting lays bare the secrets harboured by five families in a sleepy suburban cul-de-sac in this riveting psychological thriller from Joy Fielding. Everyone in this story has secrets and everyone is pretending to be something they’re not.

Happy reading, Linda

daylesford quilt

- progress collage

- a little binding collage showing fabric detail, use & scale

Another recent 'finish' is my Daylesford quilt. It was like following a fun wandering path as I went around and around, it's the largest log cabin I’ve ever made! I used a mix of fabrics - all from my stash - in mellow colours of peachy-pinks blues & browns with "pops" of mustard, including Outback Wife fabrics, Karen Lewis and a little bit of Liberty.

I chose a wide backing fabric, Tula Pink Wonder cotton sateen, so silky and so soft. I had Leeanne from quiltmekiwi machine quilt this for me. I chose an e2e quilting design called 'ikat' - such great texture. 

For the binding I went with a sweet itty bitty print, AGF Mayfair in Promenade Plum. 

Finished size approx. 60" x 60" - a tad smaller than the original, but I'm happy. Thanks for stopping by, Linda