a mashup of florals

No sewing happening around here, so I thought I'd share a few pics of one of my favourite quilts today. 

This is my 1/4 Log cabin quilt made back in August 2015

- it's a lovely mashup of floral fabrics mainly from my AMH baskets!

I really love the simplicity of this block and the beauty of the fabrics, super happy they all ended up mixing together so well. It sure to brings out the sunshine in the spare bedroom! 

And I also love how the warm / cool contrast ensures the eye moves around the quilt, searching for those special little fabric gems. 

You’ll find an eclectic mix of makes here on the blog, variety brings me joy. I can't keep all the quilts I make, so many have been gifted, some donated. 

But there are still some, like this one, that I have kept here over the years, why? As a fabric lover I find some quilts are just too hard to part with, the special ones, made from a real mix of fabrics from years of hoarding collecting, and they make me smile. 

Hope you enjoyed this little floral trip down memory lane. 

Have a great weekend, Linda.

HSTs everywhere

Over the past week, in between things, I've been sewing lots of HSTs. Last year Cathy L. Wanda and Julie all shared their versions of a vintage quilt and each time I spotted their respective progress I was tempted to make this quilt too. 

I started out with a pastel mix of curated fabrics {from These Clever Hands} and am adding in other whispery, (mainly)pale fabrics as I find them in my stash.  

When I have enough of any one fabric, I'm using the 8-at-a-time method, otherwise I'm making individual HSTs from my scrappy stash. I'm sewing them together into strips of five, and then into bigger blocks. Here's how things are looking so far up on the design wall ...

- stash finds

- vintage inspiration quilt

Linking up my new start with Kelly here at myquiltinfatuation for NTT

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

Until next time, Linda

summertime vibe

My 'Origins' quilt ended up neither shy nor retiring {wink wink}. However, I am super happy that it is 100% pulled from my stash baskets. These fat quarters have come from fabrics that have been sitting on my shelf just waiting to be made into something, anything really, so it does feel good to finally be using use them! 

And the pattern from @liftinglimitsquilting is a really fun one to play with!

Going rogue (again) with mixing colour & pattern, and mainly thinking of a summertime vibe! Lots of pastels in purple & pink, soft white, blues, and green. I'm mixing up my fabrics too, mainly AMH, Kaffes, and a few Jennifer Paganelli fabrics. 

*Update: I left my layout down on the 'design floor' for a day or so... just to be sure... to be sure... as I 
wasn't happy with that lone dark plum/cranberry block in there.
Anyways, last weekend I tweaked things just a little by swopping in a blending block and then joined everything up together. And I'm super happy with it now! 

Linking up with Kelly for NNT here @myquiltinfatuation

and with Wendy for this weekends 'peacock party' here

and over here with Cynthia for 'oh scrap' 

Until next time, Linda

pink & green

A pink and green quilt ... as in ... just pinks and greens? 

no, no I just don't think I can do it!

I've always struggled with any pink & green combo, sorta too shabby chic maybe?

 So, I went back to my stash and rummaged around to find a few other colours to possibly mix in.

Ah, this is looking much better ...

I've decided to make the 'origins' quilt, it seems like a great stash buster to use up some of my fat quarters. This quilt has so many different looks based on your fabric pull and many are going for the cohesive pretty FQ bundle look, see here.

As you can probably guess, I'm using fabric from my stash for this one. It's a big 15 1/2" block quilt, where you shuffle your fabrics around into groups of 3 and then strip piece 3 different blocks from each bundle. Sew simple, sew fun!

We will see if it ends up looking anything like what I see in my mind.

Pop back soon to see, Linda

a whole lotta one patch action

Improv vibe ✅

Scrappy ✅

Maths sorted ✅

A Sunday afternoon's “I need to make something NOW” improv session all started with a quilt idea from missmake and a FQ bundle of Unruly Nature by @jenhewett. 

I tossed up initially about maybe going for more of a checkerboard effect, alternating my prints with low volumes - but decided to go rogue and randomly place my fabrics! 

I began making up 16-patch blocks, adding in a few blending fabrics and a few strategically placed smaller 36-patch blocks to bump up the scrappy improv vibe. After a couple of days, it started to look a whole lot more exciting ...

Oh, and just before I finish... thanks for all the feedback & +ve encouragement regarding my last post about my GT&SB quilt. I'm now joining up all the sections and it's looking super too - I’ll save the glamour shots until it's quilted!

Linking up with Cynthia for 'oh scrap' here

Until next time, Linda

so close

Time for an update on my Green Tea and Sweet Beans quilt! 

This is a sampler quilt that is put together like a jigsaw puzzle, a scramble of blocks with a nonlinear look. There's a good mix of machine piecing, English Paper Piecing and machine & hand appliqué. 

I don't really think it's a good idea to leave something for so long though ... it's a little challenge now ... my tastes have changed ... and I'm over making sampler quilts.

Usually anything with scraps I'm all in, and these pretty blocks do have that real scrappy vintage feel with lots of contrast in colour & prints, all brought together with the greys, black & white fabrics. And, once I had everything out on the ‘design floor’ I could see that most of the blocks were already there👍 and so, despite earlier reservations, I was keen to keep going! 

Luckily, I found my initial selection of fabrics for this, I had tossed them all together in a basket years ago. So, I’m using those plus adding in a few recent prints – but still going for that organised chaos! 

This week I've made two more 8" drunkards path blocks, a nine 4" pinwheel blocks, and started on the 1" wide filler strips & checkerboard sections. I've also finished the 12" square daisy block and started on the final 10" x 20" floral applique block too.

I'm now focusing on how best I can "lift" things just a little. I knew I wanted to add a little more white into the mix, along with some darker 'pops' of blue into those filler blocks. And on the whole, I'm really happy with how things are progressing. 

Here's the blocks laid out almost as they will be eventually ...

As you can see, there's only a couple of missing parts to sort out, 

{three starflower blocks which are cute but a tad fiddly and some more tiny checkerboard fillers}

It's certainly a labour of love

 - and a fabulous skill builder 

- and I'm getting so so close to finishing now! 

Linking up my progress with Kelly for NTT here

Until next time, Linda

once upon a time...

Hello hello Happy New Year everyone!

Once upon a time, a long long time ago...

I began a GT&SB quilt

- my favourite block so far

and then fast forward to 2023...

Oh my, this project has been simmering away for a long time, I checked back and saw that I actually started it in 2015. It's Jen-Kingwell's 'Green Tea and Sweet Beans' but as I'm not a big fan of applique, my pace has been slow, and I've only picked it up now & then over the years.

Jen's patterns all have that vintage-y, thrifted look about them that I really love. GT&SB is basically a scrappy sampler quilt put together in quite a unique way. Jen's version looks like nothing was bought specially to make her quilt, but rather, simply collected over quite a long bit of time.

I too, was digging deep into years of my scrappy stash. trying to mix up all the fabric styles, contemporary with traditional, 30's, reproduction, vintage, Japanese, and a healthy dose of Liberty.

So, after months years of procrastination & reinspired by Lila's recent new start, I finally laid out all my completed blocks to reassess things. 

Lovin' this, it's a little dated but still whimsical & still very pretty ... and so close to finishing. I can't just shove it back into the wardrobe, I want to complete it now. 

So... I will carry on with one final burst and complete the last four bigger blocks, and the checker blocks, and the filler strips required to complete the quilt top.

Here's today's progress ...

- "poppie" block, but I'm calling it "echinacea"

Linda