Last Saturday for Green

Not much time for sewing this week - as a matter of fact I stitched up all the blocks  for my post this morning!  Whew!  I saw them all as Angela posted them but after spending time in the garden, visiting and shopping I was usually too tuckered out to do much sewing.  But I'm caught up sort of... 

 

Here are the first three posted last week - Nelson's Victory, Boxed Pinwheel and Cactus Flower.  I made cactus flower in greens - just love that little guy from Charlie Brown as the focal point for the block.  (I know Angela said this one was a left undone purple but I made it up in green.  Purple to come.)

 

 

Here are the next four - Carrie Nation, Broken dishes as a star, Friendship Scrap block, and Calico Puzzle.  I guess I've still got gardening on  my mind.  Just look at some of the fabrics I selected this morning.

 

I must have read the instructions incorrectly or copied the sizes down wrong but my Framed 4 Patch ended up at 8 inches and I just merrily went along not even thinking about it until it was done.  I'm not sure if I will just cut it down or leave it as a bonus block to use in a backing or something.  I know I have to make this one over in our new colour, yellow, so I think I'll just call this green one practice.

Check out RSC to see how everyone else is doing with their final green week.  Can't wait for June - yellow sunshine - yeah!!!

 



Going Green

Well things are definitely going green in my back yard.  Even the smoke bush has signs of leaves though they aren't green.  I love this time of year when all the different greens come to play.  The mulch is down so hopefully when those lovely yellow blooms go to seed along the walking trail they won't find it easy to germinate in the garden. 
I didn't do much quilting at the beginning of the week.  I had a few books on my shelf that were calling to me - two that needed to be read for book clubs and a few others.  After finishing the 4th book I took to quilting.




Here's the Thrifty block.  Can you tell I'm thinking of getting out into the garden? 

And down below is Monkey Wrench.  Just love those new fabrics.

I've been eyeing a Layer Cake purchased over a year ago and finally decided what to do with it.  I thought the fabrics in the layer cake were modern looking and needed a modern approach.  The local library has a wonderful collection of quilting books and I found Simply Retro by Camille Roskelley.  I'm making "Framed" with my Juggling Summer by Moda .  The blocks are sewn together into rows and the sashing strips are sewn together.  Here they are laid out on the design floor (too big for the wall).

This is not my usual style but I think it's what the fabric needed.  I'm not sure if the sashing will get attached to the rows today or on Monday but I'm hoping for a finished flimsy by Tuesday.  Now the great weather and my garden are calling so I'll link up with soscrappy and heed the call.

Green is Sprung

Well with all the rain this past week the grass is definitely greener and the leaves are opening up on the trees.  Looks like spring has sprung!  I am so happy with the new greens I picked up.  The four blocks I made for RSC this week are so cute!

   

Courthouse steps has nice contrast.

Roman steps is also a combination of old and new fabrics.

Stacked coins has a mix of old and new fabrics.


Boxed kite is all new fabrics. 
Just love the little kitty among all the dots.

I used one of the green slabs to make some flying geese.  They are so dull compared to the new fabrics.  Don't you agree?



What's really interesting about doing the RSC is seeing how colours have changed over the years.  I think fabrics have become more vibrant and colour combinations more exciting.  Could it be the influence of the modern quilt designers?  Have Kaffe Fassett's bold and intense colours influenced other fabric designers?  Or am I just getting more daring?  What do you think?

 

Green Part Two

Not much green going on this week.  I managed to make a few slabs and will have to do something with them.

I also bought a few pieces of brighter greens to supplement the dull and pale greens I had in my collection of scraps. 

 

Don't these greens look better than the slabs above.  I just love the little kitties and can't wait to fussy cut them for some blocks.  I love the chevron fabric and the polka dots always make me want to get up and dance or at least think about dancing.  What was even better is that all of this fabric was on sale for half price at a local fabric shop.   

Linking up with RSC.  Check in and see what others are working on. 

My Green Misadventure

I can't believe it's been two years!  The memory and the emotion is as clear as if it happened yesterday.  Our guild opted to hold a Past Presidents' Mystery Quilt Workshop.  We were given fabric requirements and instructions for cutting.  Once we arrived at the workshop site instructions were handed out.  I sewed and sewed and completed all my blocks and attempted to lay them out to create the quilt top.  It just wasn't coming together to my liking.  Several guild members tried to help and were very encouraging in their comments but I just wasn't happy.  When I got home I laid out the blocks on the design floor and tried to make them work.

 



But I just didn't like it.  It made me feel sad.  I asked my sister to take a look.  I trust her opinion and she very frankly told me it was an ugly quilt.  With that confirmation,  I determined to make it better.


I thought if I got rid of the pink half blocks at the top and bottom of every second column and substituted a medallion that co-ordinated with the "Heaven Can Wait" fabric line it would work.  It looked better but still wasn't right.

Then I thought that using the pink in the centres of some of the blocks might improve things.  And what if I cut some of the blocks in half and avoided the need for the accent colour at the bottom of every second row.  No that wasn't it either.

Then I tried a different green in some of the blocks.  Better but not yet.

What about using that green in the centres instead.  It's where I had originally wanted to use that green but I didn't have enough to cut the 60 rectangles required. That was looking better.

Can you see what I saw when I brought in the rest of the blocks?  I had two quilts.  One in the pink and blue-green colour way and the second in the creams and olive toned greens.

Doesn't that look better.  Now all I had to do was take the blocks apart,  replace the centres and forget about the beige and olive green toned blocks.

Add some borders and now that's  Heavenly Serenity.

Are you wondering what happened to the olive green and beige toned blocks?

I changed out those green centres for orange, made a few more blocks, added a border and had two quilts instead of one.

The greens looked good when I had all of the rectangles cut for the blocks.  They were actually from the same fabric line and the pink fabrics had both greens in them but when I tried to use them together in the same quilt top, I just didn't like it. 
The other problem was the green I selected for the centres when I found I didn't have enough of my original choice.  It had the two greens in it but the character of the fabric was all wrong to work with the other fabrics. 

This was a quilt nightmare but also a lesson well learned.  When Kathy asked for opinions about  fabrics she selected for a workshop my green nightmare came to mind.  I don't know what Kathy will decide to do but if you check her blog you'll see she had doubts about green.  Now some people could live with the original blocks I had made and I'm sure it would have been a quilt I used for picnics but I would never have been happy with it. 

May Is Green

I was pining for yellow or orange but it's green for May.  I suppose it's appropriate as the world is taking on a lovely green colour.  The grass is greening, the tulips are budding, the daffodils are in bloom and there is a lovely green colour to the tips of the trees as the buds are just itching to open.  And, of course, May's birthstone is the emerald - brilliant green. 

Here are the green scraps I found.  Is there an emerald in this pile?   I may have to check out some of the green fat quarters to get some vibrant and bright greens. 


Here's my selected boxy star block.  There were some nice bright spring like greens and some darks in the pile.  I like the floral and the leafy print to remind me that spring is really on the way.

Here's my first green RSC block,  Bento Box.  I've just read Angela's May 1st post and she is suggesting we leave the pastels for another time.  Does the light olive tone count as a pastel?  I will definitely have to dig into the fat quarters and .5 metre cuts to supplement the scraps.  I have too many pale greens - not necessarily what I call pastels but definitely pale. 

I also found time to piece some of the wee strips and complete the green spools.  I'll have to revisit one where the seams don't quite line up.  (sigh)  Stitch, rip, re-stitch!!!



Linking up with RSC.  Stop by and see what else is "greening" in blog land.

Purple Finale

The purple blocks are finished.







    
Saw tooth Star

 

Depression Block

Garlic Knot

Antique tile

Flying Geese

Ceiling Fan 

 I will have to re-do this block once I get the companion ruler.  I tried to make the flying geese without the ruler and as you can see the blocks don't quite work out.  I've got more than .25 inches at the points of the geese and they don't come together well at the centre and won't line up well when joined to other blocks in the final setting.

Cracker

 

I had to dig into the charm squares to get some of the darker shades.  I like the fruity fabrics - blueberries, blackberries and plums.  Yummy!