Last Saturday to be Mellow with Yellow

Two more quick little projects with my yellow scraps before I put them away.  I have been admiring the lozenges made by others and decided to try some too.   The quilt on Bonnie Hunter's blog, Stained Glass circa 1890's inspired me.  I've made 15 lozenges and have another 13 yellow to go. Then I'll be playing catch up with blue, pink, teal, purple and green to have enough lozenges to reproduce a modern take on the 1890's quilt.  Oh, no!  Do see you what I've done!  The triangle corners on each lozenge are supposed to be either totally dark or totally light not half'n'half.  I'll be do some ripping and re-stitching!

The ripping is done and the blocks have been corrected.  Doesn't this look better?

I love quilt books and was thrilled that the guild allowed us to borrow books over the summer.  One that I took out is Micro Mini Quilts by Moose on the Porch Quilts .  The first mini that caught my eye was one called Taffy Pull.  It finishes at 14" square and is a modified rail fence.

What fun it was putting it together.  Quilting and binding left to do.  How would you quilt it?

The second little mini I tried was Cross-Eyed.  I'm not sure if this will be the final layout.  I tried to group (where possible) like greens to create a second pinwheel pattern in the piece but I'm not sure I like it.  Should it be more random?  I already took some of the randomness (is that a word) away when I used only my yellow and green scraps. 

The last of the yellow RSC blocks are done.  Linking up with RSC.  Stop by and see what everyone is up to.

More minis

The book Layered Waves had me digging into my strips again.  This time I made a layered slab and then cut it up into strips, flipped some, rearranged some and stitched them back together.  Now the piece looks like fractured strata.  It's a neat effect. 

I'll have to sandwich it, do some quilting and bind it for another mini for our 2015 guild show.
I wanted to try some of the other techniques in the book but was determined not to cut into the fat quarters but just use up strips.  Perhaps I'll sign the book out again and try some of the more complex layers at another time. 

Last Saturday I highlighted a yellow sliver mini in my post and today I worked on a green one.  I have to bind it and put on a hanging sleeve and that will be another finish.

These are all small projects but when getting things finished is a big problem this is a big step forward.  I must say, I like the feeling.

Something New from Something Old

You can find all kinds of interesting little projects on Pinterest.  One told of taking those ugly canvas totes we've all received at a conference/workshop - you know the ones with the name of the conference or sponsor- and using them as a foundation for something quilty and creative.  All you had to do was rip open the side seam and you had a nice flat foundation on which to work your magic.  At the same time I was reading Karen Eckmeier's Layered Waves - A Fresh Way to Quilt.  It is "the technique behind Accidental Landscapes.   Well I decided to combine the bag idea with the waves technique and here is the result.

One side

The other side

  I pulled the teal and green scraps out and came up with a new little bag.  Keeping the same fabrics on both sides didn't always work out but I was determined to use strips I had so there are a few differences but it works.

I added some decorative stitching at the top to attach the first strip on both ends and on the handle so the white canvas looked like it belonged. 

 It was a fun little project and makes a great bag for my trips to the library.

Slivers of Yellow

We were lucky - strong winds, torrential downpours but no tornado.  After that was all over we've had two days of sunshine with temperatures cool enough that the air didn't have to kick in if we bumped the setting up to 75F.  I did a bit of sewing every day this week and managed to complete my Mock Mola Ananas.

The colour's off.  The background is quite black and the colours are a bit more vibrant.  That's what happens when you take the pictures indoors after sundown.

I also made the two missing RSC yellow blocks - boxed kite in green and yellow and mock Lemoyne star in orange and yellow.

I didn't have enough of the yellow with black spots so my focus fabric had to do double duty.  I think it works.

The yellow background I chose for this block almost has a peachy tone to it and I think it really compliments the orange fabrics.

And here are the yellow spools.  Perhaps I shouldn't have used that batik.  It is too green I think.

 

My last little project was a yellow mini.  I was part of a charm square exchange and wondered what to do with 40 charms in every colour imaginable.  On a shopping expedition I found a book that featured some sliver quilts.  It was a technique I wanted to try but not for an entire quilt.  Using the charm squares was a perfect solution.  Some fancy stitching and a little bit of embellishment and my Slivers of Sunshine mini was complete.

That's all for me and yellow this week.  Checking in with RSC to see what others have been up to.



 

Some New Yellow

I've been busy so haven't visited any blog sites for a few days.  What a surprise when I checked soscrappy today.  Angela's been busy with four new blocks posted for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  What fun it was to select the fabrics for the blocks!  Check out my versions of

Pinwheel Block Variation

 

Alamo Star Block

Economy Square Block

Bright Hopes Block

 

On Tuesday at our guild meeting our guest speaker was the Singing Quilter, Cathy Miller.  (Check Kathy's Blog for picture and story.)  The following day she gave her Mock Mola workshop.  It was challenging.  We had to create out own design and then do Cathy's version of reverse applique.  I was lucky that I had a doodle for inspiration. 

 

 

 

A few year's ago I was at a restaurant that provided a sheet of butcher paper for a table cloth and a cup of crayons to keep kids (adults too) amused while they waited for their meal.  While we chatted and waited I began to doodle and quite liked it so I took it home with me, and knew I'd want to make a quilt with it but wasn't sure how I'd do it.  I brought the doodle to the workshop to see if the Mock Mola technique would work.  Cathy thought it had definite possibilities.  What do you think?

It needs to be blocked and quilted but the construction is complete.  The design is the reverse of my doodle and there are modifications but the general idea was the same.  I always thought of this as a doodle but others in the class saw a pineapple.  I'm beginning to see the pineapple too.  

 

I'm including this with my Saturday soscrappy post because if you look really hard you just might spot some yellow in the batik fabric.

Stitch, Stitch, Splash

It's a grey day today! 

The clouds rolled in just after noon.

The rain started shortly after - about 1:00.

Hard to believe that last week I sat at this very table and sewed in the beautiful sunshine ..... but I was forced to stay indoors today. 
I have two quilts, that a good friend long arm quilted for me,  waiting for the binding.  I was hoping to sit right here and get them started this afternoon but I'm in the quilt studio instead.

This binding will get done this afternoon and I may get a good start on the second this evening.   I'm hoping to have more fun slow stitching to work on once all these other projects get finished up and gifted.

Linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching.  What's everyone else up to today? Are you having a grey day too?

Hurray for sunshine! Hurray for YELLOW!

It's June and yellow scraps all month long.  I've been pining for yellow or orange but was I surprised when I pulled out the scraps.  I have more of the buttery yellows than the sunshine yellow but I'll just have to make do.  Hopefully some of the really itty bitty bits in the middle will allow me to pop some of the yellow blocks Angela's got planned for this month.

Some of these are so pale they look almost white.  I guess they'll be good background in a block.

 

I made the two blocks Angela posted in RSC - the framed four patch

 

and Lover's Knot

And I made my boxy star block

Just look at those florals.  Don't they look like I've had them in my stash for a while?

That's it for the first week in June.  Here's looking forward to more sunshiny yellow days ahead.

 

 



Got it right

Last week Angela posted one yellow and one purple block - the purple was a catch up block and the yellow was an advance for June block.  I was still in  my green mode and made them up that way but had every intention of doing them up right (don't I sound like Mike Holmes).  So here they are - one purple cactus pot

and the four patch framed in the right size and the right colour!

So as of now I am caught up with RSC but I'm almost afraid to say it.  Every time I do Angela posts another block ;-).

First Sunday of June

What a glorious day today.  Not too hot, 26 C - that's about 82 F.  A perfect day to sit out on the deck and do some hand stitching.

I'm putting the binding on the seven shirts quilt so it will be ready to gift to a friend.  I had made a quilt for  his birthday last year.  He was to take it on the road with  him but when he saw it, he decided it was too nice for the truck and he'd use it at home.  Hopefully this one will be deemed appropriate for the truck. 

 

That's it for slow Sunday stitching.  Visit Kathy and see some other great handwork.