a sampler of sorts

Still busy around here. I've spent several days over the past week or so sorting and cleaning and re-organizing my sewing room and am pleased with how things are looking.

I've handed a bag (or three) of fabric scraps to my friend Glenys, I've prioritised a few quilt tops for backing & layering up ready for quilting, and I've popped a new needle in my sewing machine✅.

I have a scrap basket under my sewing table that I drop scraps into as I sew. It was pretty close to overflowing, so I also spent a bit of time sorting those scraps into colour-coded baskets. 

Taming those WiPs needed a more serious effort. I've decided I'm happy for blocks of current projects to either live up on the design wall or be tucked into a basket on top of one of my fabric cabinets, just so long as they are close by & easy to pick up. Potential fabric pulls, not yet cut but set aside for possible projects, have been bundled up with ribbons and placed together in a large basket. My latest finished tops are now folded & draped on coat hangers in the wardrobe. 

But I'm guessing you didn't stop by to hear all about my reorganising. 

Here's a few pics of my most current WiP ...

 

And a few more details about this one ...

I had recently splashed out on a few 30cms strips of Anna Maria's 'piecework' fabrics mainly in the vintage colourway, from jenkingwell in Australia. 

I felt the pull of creativity as soon as I unwrapped my parcel ... and before I knew it, I was busy daydreaming about making a sampler of sorts.

There is a *pattern available which I tried to source with no luck, and so using photos I saw online, I went a bit loosey-goosey and did my own thing. I do enjoy figuring out things for myself, especially if there are basic, traditional blocks involved. It's a fun challenge.

I used a few blocks from the Alison Glass Made & Found QAL, a fun free 9" block series emailed weekly earlier last year that I'd saved. I made duplicate blocks along the way and repeated some fabric combos I really liked to help give some sense of continuity within the blocks.

For fun, I also added in 1x FPP 8-point & 2x FPP 6-point stars, using patterns I bought from thimblesandneedles in Australia.

 

I mixed in a few solids with my prints, but - as I didn't have heaps of the new range - I've added in a few blenders from my stash too.  All in a rich palette of warm gold-yellows, blues, playful pinks, and a little bit of green.

Fast forward to now,

 and in no time at all, I had my 30 simple little blocks all joined up ...

 my favourite kind of quilt

- inspired by tradition but reworked to look a bit modern.

*I did finally find a pre-order pattern but postage to NZ was way too expensive :( 

I made a few queries and happily, Anna Maria dm'd that she'll have a PDF pattern available soon too 

- I might just make another one when that's available!

progress pics

I like to juggle a few WiPs at any one time, and usually, this helps me manage my crazy attention span!
But there comes a time when I simply have to stop and take some time to tidy my sewing room. I also needed make a few decisions about fabrics & my overflowing baskets (like keep - chuck - gift/donate). It feels like I'm simply shifting clutter from one location to another though! 

And those WiPs needed to be dealt to. I made a list. 

One mess quilt top I wanted to finish up was joining these TATW blocks. It's all straightforward patchwork, slow but immensely joyful. Each block is a new invitation to play with colour and pattern, see back here for earlier details.  

... and I decided on a scrappy border for the win! Not only does it use up more stash, but it also ensures all those edges are secure & prevents the seams from unravelling. I've used a selection of bold greens, and I love how it holds in the beautiful bursting floral blocks.

I've also made another 'boardwalk' block too,

 it's a repeat block design & great for using both big & small scraps ...

Hm-m- this one block a week idea won't last much longer, I'm having way too much fun!

And part of the big tidy up was some maintenance on my sewing machine.

Now & then Mr D kindly checks everything, including vacuuming out the dust bunnies.

OMG dare I confess, it must have been quite a while since the last time, 

'cos look ... 

🤣

... note to self: de-lint my machine monthly

Linda

playing with prints & patterns.

I started Emma's Boardwalk quilt this weekend. It ticks all the boxes - it's scrappy, vibrant, fun, and perfect for playing with prints and patterns. I'm loving the wee challenge of creating small, coordinated collections for each big 14 1/2" block. I'm hoping the bright colours of my larger prints will contrast nicely with the geometric intersecting cross to create a fresh, modern design. 

Must admit, the piecing kept me on my toes! The pie to arc seam is quite tight. So, I decided to make up a single paper piecing (FPP) unit for the fan blades, something I'd seen Suzanne on IG do, and it did make for a slightly easier sew. And, by the time I'd made my 4th quarter, I had it all looking okay.

- trial block✅

Planning the next block now,

Linda 

sewing a rainbow

- the very last bit of this 'mod corsage' fabric:(

- progress on the design floor

- I found lots of layout options for HSTs

My next little venture for my 'quilt the book' project is a HST star quilt. I'm following Jolene's layout & measurements, only, unlike her version, I've decided to go the full rainbow palette. I don't often use a rainbow - or gradient - palette, but I’m going to have a go here.

I enjoy making HSTs (truly), always keen for some perfect points practice, and it's a simple sew that eats up a few more of those scraps, running out of white/creams now! 

I'm using a gorgeous scrappy array of rainbow hues, including a few 'bridging' colours to move things from one colour to the next. Think red/pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue/purple, and red/purple.

A rainbow scrap quilt seems to be more about the overall effect rather than the individual fabrics, and it's a great way to keep the variety and movement happening without the stress of worrying too much about placement of colours.  From what I've read so far, the main idea here is that you want your fabrics to blend! 

However, it's a little fun challenge for me because, as most of you know, my stash is predominantly in large scale, multi-coloured fabrics. I'm digging deep for some fabrics that read as one colour, and I'm also including some new favourites, some jewel tones, & some pastels, sewing them all together (very) roughly in ROYGBIV order. 

Blues & purples up next ...

❤️🩷🧡💛💚🩵💙💜

be still my rainbow loving heart

Linda

Lots of photos!

Just popping in quickly with an update on my 'sawtooth star' flower quilt top ...

🌸🌼🌸Loving this mix of deep florals, birds & butterflies, and tangled gardens🌸🌼🌸

Happy weekending, Linda

A lightbulb, a seam ripper, and a result

With the sudden shift from summer heat to autumnal weather, we're getting shorter days and school holidays & Easter are approaching fast. No matter what the day brings, I have lots waiting for me whenever I head upstairs to the sewing room! And these flower stars are brightening up my space just now. 

So, this project started out as a few experimental scrappy 'sawtooth star' blocks using some of my multi-coloured, hard to use fabrics. While most of my blocks are made up of three values of the one colour - be it pink, purple or blue - there are a few rogue ones, just to keep things interesting! I used a lot of my 'good' scraps, a big mix of AM, along with some Alison Glass & other blenders.
But I just wasn't feeling the love, so it all got stashed away in the box in the wardrobe.

This week I pulled my blocks out & relooked at them all spread out on the design floor. I liked the combos, hues of purple & violet, and pinks, and blue, but I needed to fine tune my palette ... then I had a lightbulb moment ... maybe more warm pinks than cool ... yes of course! Sew simple!

After a four-day flurry of fabric, 

with the seam ripper seeing quite a bit of action, I swopped out a few fabrics and remade a few blocks.

Et voilà, a crazy bold busy result ...

loving the value contrast in these blocks ... 

it's all about the border with this one actually, carrying those lush colours right out to the very edge ...

Enough faffing around.

Time to get this all up off the floor and stitched together now. 

Linda

floating log cabins

Floating Log Cabins in grey & plum

here's a few progress pics ...

April's little scrap quilt for my 'quilt the book' project is making floating log cabins, an improv idea from Jolene's book Scrap Quilt Diary, (no pattern but you can kinda work out what's happening). 

My colour concept is simple, greys & plums with tiny pops of red, gold & blue. I've sifted through my small stash of Liberty scraps for small scale floral strips in varying widths, along with lots of soft greys.

And I'm teaming these up with 3" center squares cut from two panels on my Aunty Freda's blouse, years old but still in very good condition. I repeated some of the Liberty fabrics so ensure there was some kind of continuity happening. I aimed for (approx.)10" square log cabin blocks.  

As I began adding sashing to my blocks using a gentle mix of creams, whites and whisper soft touches of pink, I remembered an early post from Cath @wombatquilts. She gave instructions for making LV filler blocks, so I made a few to give my log cabins room to breathe. Such a super way to use up to use little itty-bitty leftovers from my main blocks. 

These extra blocks were (approx.)12" x 6" or so and allowed me to join up the quilt in an irregular pattern as well as help achieve that 'floating' concept. 

Hm-m- I seem to have veered off track a bit but am super happy with where I ended up.

Until next time, Linda