Saturday 28 March 2015

Last days of yellow

Oh, my!  I'm really getting low on yellow scraps.  I was even piecing strings to finish just one yellow  block.  This is it for the last week of yellow.  After this it's just crumbs for a few blocks before I put the yellow away for this year.
Linking up with scrap happy Angela and checking to see what everyone else has done this week.

Friday 20 March 2015

It's Spring

Wow!  It's officially spring in the northern hemisphere.  Snows are melting, temperatures are warming up, gentle rains are falling and the sap is flowing.  Maple syrup events are happening in neighbouring communities and the first batch of the 2015 season is on sale.

Another busy week with Easter preparations but I did find time on Friday to make one yellow string block.  What an array of yellow prints and hues!  Bright sunny yellow, golden yellow, buttery yellow and every shade in between!

I found a gummy bear quilt in Myra Harder's Nap and Nod Adorable Baby Quilts.  A friend's granddaughter just loves the Gummy Bear songs and is often seen dancing away to the tunes.  When I saw the pattern I immediately knew I had to make it for her.  Gummy bears are cut out of Minky or fleece and need to be appliqued.  I bought Minky for the backing so it should be a great little quilt for nap time.  Here's the layout - note the two adorable yellow gummy bears.  I think the polka dot background just makes it fun and youthful.
I'll be linking up with soscrappy and checking out some blogs to see what others have been busy doing.  Just one more yellow week and then time for a new colour!  What will it be?

Sunday 15 March 2015

Leafy Sunday

It's been a while since I've linked up but it feels so right today.  The cover on a book I borrowed from the guild library was the inspiration for my work last Friday and today. 
 I'm appliqueing leaves to sky blue background.  The leaves are in fall shades of orange, yellow, red and green.  They will be pieced with sashing and leaf detail added in the quilting.  I haven't decided how large the quilt will be yet - could be a mini, could be a lap quilt. 
 
I'm working on a double green one now.  Hope to get a few more finished up.  Linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching and checking out what others are hand stitching today.

Friday 13 March 2015

Mellow Yellow

What a busy week!  I managed to complete the monkey wrench on Monday but it wasn't until Friday that the star points were added.  The yellow I used for the monkey wrench block has a more mellow tone than last week's yellow. 

The yellow star points and bits in the block are the left over bits from the guild challenge fabric.  I love this yellow shade.

I've also started a new project.  I'm not sure if I'll do the full quilt or just make a wall hanging or mini.  They are supposed to be leaves against a sky background.  Check out two of the yellow ones waiting to be appliqued.  Hopefully they'll be alright once the quilting is on and you won't notice the lemons quite so much.
 

Here are all of the RSC15 blocks to date.  I think this will be a great little quilt -  bright and fresh.
Hopefully there will be more time for quilting next week and the strippy blocks will be finished up .  Linking up with Angela at soscrappy and stopping by to visit other RSC15 participant  sites.

Tuesday 10 March 2015

The Challenging Challenge

There is a challenge that members of my quilters' guild are invited to participate in for our biannual Guild Quilt Show.  Northcott fabrics were selected as the challenge fabrics and the theme was Nightscapes.  I purchased one of the challenge kits last fall and somehow misplaced it in my quilt studio but that didn't stop me from participating.  No, it was just another challenge.  Thankfully one of the quilt shops in town had agreed to carry the line so I purchased the fabric yet again back in January.  The fabric sat and sat and the time for submitting the challenge piece crept closer and closer.  Finally, last week I bit the bullet and started a piece.  I decided to add the fabric to a project I had started at a workshop with Elaine Kuehl several years ago but when I tried putting it with the challenge fabric it just didn't work the way I hoped it would.  The direction of the illumination was all wrong for what I wanted to do.  So I sat and sat and wondered what to do.  About midnight I gazed out my window and saw it.  The perfect project.  "My View" from my studio window was indeed a nightscape. 
 
I created my window and what I saw outside.  You can't see too clearly the purple fabric because of the reflection on the organza that I used to simulate the glass but it is in the lower 1/3 of the window.  I used the yellow front and back to simulate the folds in the drapes and the lights outside.  There are things I would do differently but the piece is finished in time to submit at tonight's guild meeting.  

Saturday 7 March 2015

First Signs of Yellow

The daylight hours are getting longer and tonight we are to spring ahead.  I guess this means spring is just around the corner and the forecast for our area does say temperatures will hover around the 0 Celsius mark all next week.  Sunny days ahead outdoors and in my quilting world.

It's been a busy week but I did manage to squeeze some time in and make two blocks yesterday.  The first yellow block for the RSC15 is very pale with all that white around it.  Perhaps I should have used a subtle print to define some areas more clearly.  I do like the way the friendship star defines itself in the centre.
 
The second block will be added to my growing number of boxy stars started during last years challenge.
Linking up with Angela at so scrappy.  Stop by to see what sunshiney goodness others have come completed.

Going Neutral

This year I opted for 4 different RSC projects.  All of the colours to date have worked well with the blocks but light neutrals will be a ch...