March is Teal

Teal is one of those colours I have trouble with because I'm not sure what qualifies as teal and then I'm told there is teal blue and teal green.  More confusion!   I checked my green and blue small cuts and scrap bins to look for "teal".  I had a few in the blue bin but most in the green bin so I'm thinking most of my teals are of the teal green variety.

Here they are.  Not much tonal variation so I'll have to be very creative in working some of the blocks for RSC 6" blocks.  I wonder if some of my quilting buddies have odd bits of teal that they would be willing to donate to the cause.  I could use some lights.  In doing the squint test I see that most of my fabrics are mediums and one or two that read a little darker and one that reads a little lighter.  I attended a workshop with RaNae Merrill last year and she pointed out that many quilters work with colour in the medium range and have few darks and lights in their stash.  Could it be that fabric designers focus more on the mediums with perhaps one dark and one light in their collections?  I'll have to check out that theory.  Some of the fabrics are at least ten years old so it will be good to clear them from the stash.

RSC Saturday Check In

Can't believe a week has rolled by already and I don't have too much to show for the week.  I managed to complete the two new blocks for RSC - Jacob's Ladder and Bow Tie. 

Here's my version of Bow Tie.  I was working on another project and had a bit of this wild animal print left so used it for the bow tie.  That was one less scrap to worry about.

And here's Jacob's ladder.  I would have liked a little more contrast between the medium and the dark but when you're working with scraps you do the best you can.

This is the little project I worked on.  You can see the wild animal print in the upper cat.  When I saw the pattern for this little wall hanging I thought it was paper pieced but was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't.  I have to applique the tails and will hopefully get that done on Sunday.  Then it's time to do a little quilting and pass the gift along to an 8 year old I'm tutoring.  When she was here last week she asked to visit the quilt studio and admired all the six inch RSC blocks on the design wall.  She was wishing for even one of the little blue squares to put up on the wall in her room  last week so hopefully this will help to satisfy that wish.

 

I'm linking up with So Scrappy this morning.  Take a peek and see what everyone else is busy doing.

I've tried to crop and brighten up my photos using photo shop this morning.  Hopefully they're a little better.  I'm still working on that aspect of blogging.  :)  

Journey into Slow Stitching

My niece was going to have a baby!  Hurrah!!  Finally I would be able to make a baby quilt. Some of my quilting buddies have been making baby quilts for grandchildren, nieces and nephews for years so I talked to a few to find the best source for fabrics for children's quilts and last spring headed out to find the shop everyone agreed had an excellent selection. I had never been to this shop and checked on line maps to locate the shop. I plugged the address into my GPS and set out.  I ended up going through a forest preserve on a road that twisted and turned and even followed a grader leveling the dirt road after spring thaw. I wondered why anyone in their right mind would want to go to this particular shop but it looked like I was almost there so carried on. (Thank goodness I had 4 wheel drive.) When I exited my car it was caked in mud but the quilt shop was straight ahead in a cute little barn that had been converted into a quilt shop. The rest of the shopping trip was a delight. Most of the lower level was devoted to fabrics for children's quilts. There were brights and pastels and beautiful panels. We knew the baby would be a girl so I found a lovely panel and some coordinating fabrics for backing and borders. The panel was very pale and the sample in the shop was backstitched in floss to outline the characters. And so my slow stitching began. It is finished and the borders are attached. Now after all that hand work I can't bring myself to machine quilt so the slow stitching journey will continue.


A perfect quilt for a little princess. 

 

In case you're interested there was a better, cleaner more direct route - don't trust GPS :)

Scrappy Pink Fabric

I borrowed Fifteen Minutes of Play by Victoria Findlay Wolfe from the guild library and enjoyed reading about her approach to scraps.  It reminded me of crumb quilts  but she makes fabric using scraps and treats it just like regular yardage when cutting to create blocks.  This strategy brought to mind a very experienced quilter I met who used ugly blocks like a piece of fabric and cut them up to create new blocks. 
In keeping with this months colour, I used odds and ends of pink and stitched them together to create a piece of fabric.  I then cut it into strips and paired the strips with a bit of neutral fabric and sewed up a HST block.


Here is the 8" finished block made of HST

and here is just one of the HST I pieced.  It measures 2" finished.



It was an interesting process but difficult with the small triangles because of all the seams so I tried a very large Flying Geese block suggested in the book.  It is much easier to see the small pieces and looks like an interesting crazy patch fabric.

I must admit I have never made Flying Geese this large.  The block finishes at 12".

 

I also managed to complete the broken dishes block from the RSC

 

and the flimsie from the Sewl Bowl.  I'm still not convinced I like the borders on this one but I did want to make borders that indicated a top and bottom.  My fabric was a stripe with dancing cows, kittens and frogs and I did want the dancing cows to tie in with the black squares.

It has some pinks and corally pink so I thought I'd include it in the So Scrappy Saturday check in.
Hop over to So Scrappy to see what everyone has been doing.

 





Slivers of Pink

A while back I saw a delightful quilt with little pops of colour inserted into blocks made of cake plates.  I couldn't imagine inserting such tiny bits of fabric into a block but they definitely added some interest and some charm.  (That's before I made the baby nines block.)  Charm!  I had a collection of charm squares and wondered what to do with them.  Could I make some of these interesting little sliver blocks using charm squares?  So I gave it a try.  All I had to do was iron a fold into the charm square, insert a folded bit of fabric into the fold and stitch 1/4 inch away from the fold.  Open, press and tack down the loose edge or not.  The result was so cute.  I put several together to form a little unit.

I've put together six of the little blocks.  The 5 inch charm blocks were cut down to 4.5 inches to accommodate the loss  when the diagonal folds were made.

Stitch down the loose edge using decorative stitching for some added interest.

I haven't decided what to do with these little units yet but they are a good size for some cute little breakfast rugs - they will hold a mug and some toast or a bowl of cereal.  Hmm!  Or maybe I could put a group of these together to make a cute little wall hanging after adding some embellishment of course.  Decisions, decisions.



RSC Sampler In the Pink

I put off working with the little 1 inch strips to make the baby nines thinking it would be a challenge to work with such small bits.  However, Angela was right they do fit together very nicely.  I just love the look of the baby nines.  They are so cute.

The four corners went together so easily but I didn't have enough of the medium so interchanged the dark and medium.  It looks alright but not quite as per directions.

Dreams of Summer Gardens

It's another day of snow.  We just don't know where to put it anymore.  Here's our deck and down below is my garden buried under a cold blanket of snow.  I've been giving some thought to additions and changes I'd like to make in the spring.



The deck is covered in snow and I have to get out there and clear it again.  The snow is knee deep.  All you can see of the garden is a few of the shrubs and a small tree.

 

Here's the map quilt I completed for a group challenge.  It shows the patio under the deck.  A garden plot for a few veggies and herbs and the flower beds.  I can hardly wait to get out there and do some planting.  I also want to add two trees and a stepping stone pathway from the gate to the garden.  This planning and dreaming sure makes it easier to handle the mounds of snow outside. 

PPM Flimsie

What fun we had yesterday.  Twenty-five + guild members met to work on a mystery quilt.  Everyone arrived with their 70 charm sized squares (5 inch squares) and 21 two and a half inch strips of neutral fabric.  Shortly after 9:30 a.m. we were at our machines waiting for the first clue.  As we sewed and sewed the past presidents ironed for us so the production line could keep going.  At noon they called us for a wonderful lasagne lunch and then it was back to the machines and design surfaces - walls or tables or any flat surface.  It was so much fun seeing all the different quits as they were laid out ready for stitching.

Here's what mine looks like to date.  I love the zigzag look.  It reminds me of rows of rickrack.  I have to figure out whether the quilt is finished or needs borders but that's for another day.

So Scrappy Saturday Check In

First Saturday in February and the colour is Pink.  Last month I couldn't decide whether to make my So Scrappy 2014 Quilt using the box block or the boxy star block.  Thanks to everyone for their thoughts.  I've had a month to think about it and gaze at the two blocks on my design wall and have made a decision. 

Boxy Star Block it is.

The coloured fabric really becomes the focus in this block and that's the whole idea behind the scrap happy colour of the month challenge.

 And here are the two of them.  Looking pretty I think! The colour in this photo is more true to the actual colours than the photo of the pink block alone.  Those darn light bulbs just distort colours so much.

 

And now I have to get ready to head off to our PPM workshop.  Can't wait to see what we'll make from 70 charm squares and 21 two and a half inch strips.



Check over at So Scrappy to see what everyone else is up to.