Red Pairings

I spent my quilting time this week catching up on the Shop Hop blocks and since the colour for July was red, I dove into my red scraps to come up with three of the blocks in red too.  I think if I keep this up I'll have a nice little quilt at the end.

Here's the first block I did up this way - a split Ohio star with it's blue mate:

Next up was this lovely pair:

And finally a neat variation of what looks to me like windows:

The last three Shop Hop blocks are waiting for their mates.

I have saved one block to do some slow Sunday stitching. I'll post next week.

And here's the group all together.

Linking up with Angela and checking out all the other scrappy quilters.

Late Check-in

Where has the week gone?  I managed to get outdoors to take a photo of the last row in the RSC - the pink and red one.

I think it looks pretty good. Hopefully I read the sketch properly and have the pink and red and brown squares in the right places.

For the last year and a half I've been making a Boxy Star block in the colour of the month.  I selected orangey-red for the July boxy star.

There's quite a bit of textural detail in the fabrics which adds a bit of interest.  Hopefully this will work to transition from orange to purple in the final layout.

We had guests all week and with an active two year old in the house there wasn't much time for quilting but I did get two of the shop hop blocks finished up. 

This one is crossed canoes.

 



I love the bubbles and swirls fabrics.  They go so well with the watery blue theme for the row by row and the shop hop quilt.  Only 5  blocks and 5 rows waiting to be prepped and sewn and 8 quilt shops to visit before the end of July!  With careful planning it will all get done.

I'm off to check in with Angela and take a look at what other scrappy quilters have been up to.

Round Two in Red

I was so surprised (pleasantly) that Angela had posted both red blocks for the RSC.  Here they are:

They are both lanterns of a sort and I guess the closest thing there is to fireworks in a quilt block.  So very appropriate for both Canada Day and Independence Day celebrations.  After I made the centres it took no time at all to insert them into the already prepared saw tooth star segments.

I love the way they turned out and they look great in the row.  My pictures of the row were taken late last night and no amount of photo shopping gave me a good photo of the row.  I'll try again for next week.

 

More July Shop Hopping and Row by Row experiences this week.  We visited four different shops.  Two I have never been in before and loved the experience.  Each shop has it's own character with the lines of fabric and the style of quilting.  I have now discovered a great little shop for homespun cottons that make up into the softest chenille scarves.  And a wonderful restaurant just down the road from a shop that featured a block with some needle punch work on it.  I think this will be a row that will take more time to finish.  I remember my mom making velvet and satin needle punch pillows using wools but this tiny block is made on cotton using pearl cotton or floss.  It is a much finer look. 

 

I finished another row with the water theme:

 

This is boating on the Grand. 

 

Lots of company this week and more to come this weekend so it really cuts into the quilting time but I'm loving touching base with everyone.  It's summer after all.

 

I'll be touching base today with Angela and visiting other Scrappy blogs.  Join the group and see what others have been stitching up.





Good Bye Blue, Hello Red

Happy Fourth of July to all the American bloggers.

It's been a week of starts and finishes.  Finally the rain has stopped, the sun has come out and I was able to spend some time in the garden.  The flower beds look so much better now that they're mostly weed free. 
 
I made a trip to my local quilt shop and picked up the kit for the row by row experience.  The theme for this year was water - H2O.  I've always wanted to make a snail's trail block and that's what the first row is.  In keeping with the theme the fabrics were white, aqua, and navy with a wonderful Japanese Hokusai wave print.

It's created such a beautiful wave like motion with the colour placement. They called this row Whale's Trail.  This is my good bye to blue or maybe not.  I suspect when I visit neighbouring shops I might see a little more blue before this experience is complete.


I pulled out my red`s after Angela posted the colour for the month and made the star points for the red saw tooth stars. 

 While I was at it, I also made the alternate blocks to go between.

They will be in the final row of the RSC quilt with the pink blocks anchoring the ends.  Here's how that will look:

 

 I think I've got them right if I followed the patterning for the blocks.  Looking good so far.

Angela suggested we take a mid year look at our projects.  The only one I've been really consistent with is the Boxy Stars. 

Another red one will be added this month.  By December I'll have 24 of these beauties - enough for a fair sized quilt once the borders are added. 

That's it for this week.  I'm off to check in with Angela over at so scrappy and then visit  other scrappy quilters to see what they've been up to.