Sunday Sewday

Lots of time stitching lately round here.  I think as the year gets busier I'm making myself spend time stitching to try to balance it out.  Here's some of what I've been up to.

The RSC has moved on to yellow for October.  I have lots of yellow but have only made a start on some star points because I was buy sewing blue stars for the collaborative foster kids quilt.  You can check out what others are up to here.

The last two blocks for my sampler, which started a couple or so years ago as a Classic Meets Modern QAL over at www.sewathomemummy.com  Along the way I disliked my choices, changed direction, lost interest, until finally I made a new plan to finish this.  I found some blocks around the internet that I wanted to make and have used lots of nice strong fabrics in these to pull everything together.  Watch this space for the setting plan.

I'm continuing to work on the Project 48 Quilt.  Dodgy photo I'm afraid, taken at quilt group when I laid the blocks out.  Below are the blocks made since then.  I think I am one block behind; the applique month really slowed me down.

Also under my needle:  blue stars, postcards for a swap, a secret project for a Christmas Swap.

On my mind:  finishing the RSC Sampler from 2014, my much neglected wonky houses, a row quilt from a swap a few (could it be 10) years ago.

Sunday Sewday

My Project 48 Quilt has been languishing over the past month or so.  I had spent quite a bit of time on other projects with deadlines so this took a backseat, and  though I normally try and keep up to date with these blocks there seem to have been issues with recent blocks.  Some blocks have needed more thought than usual around fabric choice and placement, some needed alternative techniques to be found, and others that just took a long time to make.  I'm still not up to date, but I feel like I've made some good progress with these.

With deadlines met I've also got back to making my Wonky Stars for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and will be linking up with Angela at So Scrappy for her weekly check-in.  Angela's blog is wealth of pattern and project ideas based on using your scraps by colour.  The link ups give you a chance to see what everyone else in blog-land is doing.

Now what about those deadlines?  Here's one.  This is a 12 x 12 piece for the Aotearoa Quilters yellow challenge.  I had lots of ideas for yellow, but none that really formed into a plan.  Then I found a pile of doilies with yellow embroidery and I figured I could do something with those.  My favourite shirt provided the inspiration I needed.  It is a really graphic print that makes great use of colour, and I love the way different designs flow into and across each other.  I stamped and stencilled some background fabric, and found a graphic print, and a retro floral (a sheet) to add the different patterns.  I quilted it in a variegated yellow, and then stitched in black, cutting across the yellow quilting. 

I'll blog about the other deadline project another time.  It will take a wee bit of explanation.

Quilt Salad

I feel like I've been working on a bit of everything this week.   My really creative project is a small abstract piece for an online art quilt group I joined.  It's the second in a series. That sounds very aspirational for me, but really I'm just having another try at making the first one again using a different technique.  No pictures yet; it's still a bit too rough, and I had to give up this afternoon when I couldn't get the cat off the work in progress.  The group is also having a postcard swap which I was a bit worried about about the workload of at first but then I put my thinking cap on and went through THAT BAG in the bottom of the cupboard.  Well I found some spares of these postcards from a few years back to use, and the off cuts of this netted a few more so I'm well on the way now.

I've spent some time on my Project 48 Quilt blocks, trying to resolve the 'issues' that seem to have come with some of the recent blocks.

As well as some being too big and some too small, I fear that some are  just plain gaudy.   I fell in love with the orange solid in the top two blocks while browsing at Nancy's win Wellington and had to buy it. Unfortunately once it's pieced I find it a bit sickly sweet, like a icing, or Fanta with ice-cream.  I'll have to work had with the next few block to focus the colour scheme again.

Wonky stars continue to make me smile.  I made parts with my blues and completed a few pink blocks for the weekly Rainbow Scrap Challenge link up which you can see here.  There are some amazing projects being made by the other participants.

One more week and then I'm heading off for a quilt retreat with my quilting buddy!  Yay.

Back in the wonky swing of things

I've really got back into making wonky stars this week.  These pinks make me smile.  A few years ago I would have cringed at pink, and I wouldn't have had any in my stash, but after making Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion mystery quilt a couple of years ago I collected some pinks, and combined with crisp white and the Wonky Star block, I have to say I'm in love with these pinks.

Don't forget to have a look at Angela's blog and see what other pink projects are in the pipeline with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge weekly link up here.

I also made some blue stars for my group's charity project.  I'm in catch up because we were planning a multicoloured quilt, but at our first check in when we combined the blocks, I was the only one who didn't make blue stars.  We've now turned the projected into a blue quilt LOL.  These are my blue stars from the past couple of weeks combined.  Obviously I'm playing in the very dark blue end of the blue drawer.

Slow stitching

After a bit of a hiatus I've got back into stitching Wonky Stars.  Pink stars just because it is the colour of the month over it a the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (check out the awesome projects that other bloggers make on Angela's Saturday linky here), and dark blue stars for the charity project my little group is working on.  I think I say this everytime I post photos of a few of these blocks, but I really love making these stars. 

 

 

We had a trip to Wellington on Friday and a couple of quilt shop visits allowed me to add to my supplies for my Project 48 Quilt.  That fox might be a bit tricky to use, but it was so cute, LOL.  It will depend on what the future blocks are like.  

Half way point

This week marks the half way point of the Project 48 Quilt with the 24th block completed.  I'm enjoying this project and am pretty pleased overall with the way things seem to be coming together. I started with a bunch of fabrics leftover from my raggy jeans quilt and added some scraps.  It got a bit bland and after 12 blocks I refreshed the fabrics with some solids and additional prints.  This seemed to lift it and pull it together.  I also took the opportunity to remake one block which was bugging me - LOL.  I think I might do that again now.  And looking at the picture I think I need to use more of the solid orange, some green, the white-on-blue print in the Greek Cross.

I think the only thing that's disappointing about working on this Quilt Along is that it lacks the sense of community that blog-based Quilt Alongs have.  Though there's a Facebook page and Instagram, I don't feel like there's a home for the project and don't feel connected to others involved in the same way that have when working on other projects of this type.

Anyway, here's my progress so far.  I really should lay them all out to mark the half way point, but lunch calls.

I came back

I headed away for few days at Easter and that turned into several weeks when my father-in-law became ill and later passed away.  With all of that it has somehow been a along time since I stitched, so I was glad of the opportunity to spend time at my monthly quilt group meeting working on these little wonky stars.  

Some greens to link up with the RSC 2016 colour of the month. 

Sunday check in

This weekend I've washed and ironed lots of fabric.  It has been in storage for a while and needed to be freshened up before going into my drawers.  Lots of little pieces makes for lots of work, but it will be worth it to have lovely fresh fabric.

My Project 48 Quilt block this month has lots of orangey goodness.  I'm not sure about it though; the background fabric doesn't really rock my world.   However my approach to this quilt is to learn from the choices I make and just move on.

Lots of wonky fun this weekend.  One purple block for the RSC linkup, one blue block for my growing stash of these, and three aqua/teal/turquoise blocks for a charity quilt project with my quilt group - yes I've got them making these stars now.

Stitching time

The Project 48 Quilt moved into Flying Geese Month and released its 9th block this week. 

 

And the RSC 2016 moved into purple.  Loving these.  There is lots of purple eye candy to see at So Scrappy in the link up. 

 

The last of the summer sewing

As the end of February draws near so does the 'official' end of summer.  I spent this last weekend of summer stitching on a number of projects.  I was going to go into the office and catch up on a couple of things (try and clear out my email) but I just couldn't face it when I had lovely quilty projects to play with.

First up a wonky star for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, in the 'proper' February colour way of *Brown with a touch of pink*.   Others will have lots more to show.  You can check out their chocolately goodness at the weekly linkup here.

This week's Project 48 Quilt block is my favourite.  Sometimes fabric combinations come together and you are reminded that this is why you quilt; this is one of those times!  Full credit to background print which I think does all the work here.

 

 I worked on my slightly neglected  Allietare Mystery Quilt.  Working out where I was up to wasn't so hard once I got started.  I stitched together all the 'extra' star blocks, and some of the pieces for the extra alternate blocks. 

And lastly, I worked on what I'm now calling my *Sew Along Sampler*.  I made this very tipsy Arkansas Traveler Block.  It is not meant to look wonky, but something went wrong when I was cutting and sewing 60 degree angles.  This means that is both wonky and small.  But I took Tim Gunn's MAKE IT WORK mantra to heart and this is my Tipsy Traveler.  

I have 10 blocks done now and I fell that they are starting to look a bit more cohesive.  I think that dark border (a coping strip to bring it up to size) might have to be narrowed down because it is very dominant.

My plan is that this will be a donation quilt for Foster Hope, a charity that supports children in foster care by providing all the things they don't have when they move into care.  In many cases they need pretty much everything from a toothbrush to clothes; a teddy bear to a school bag.  Foster Hope is a group that has lots of different ways for people to help, including making quilts.  So because I want this quilt to be for a child, I'm working on moving it away from the kind of weird scrappy look of some of the first blocks I made towards  bright colourful. 

(Hmmm... when I look at this photo, I'm not sure that fan block is square.  I might need to take a look at that.)

So that is my stitching for the last weekend of summer.  I hope that the warm weather continues, and that my productivity does too!

A new project

I just couldn't resist starting a new project.  The Project 48 Quilt is a an epic year long quilt sampler masterminded by Crystal McCann and Linden Vine.  I love that there is a mixture of traditional and improvised (or wonky) blocks. 

I'm trying to resist Pat Sloan's Splendid Sampler.  The idea of a sampler of 100 little 6 inch blocks really appeals.  Hmmmm....  watch this space.  I keep telling myself I still haven't put the RSC2014 Sampler together.  We'll just see how convincing I can be. 

A little scrappy catchup

So (or is that sew?) it has been a while I checked in on my blog and on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  There are 2 reasons for that.  Firstly life got a little busy as DH and I because caught in in putting my Father-in-Law into care.  As he's in the South Island, that meant some travel and time away from home, and lots of organising and work to be done.

Secondly the colour for February is brown, and I just can't get excited about it so I've been procrastinating.  Today I finally decided to grow and up just sew a block and see what I thought.

I don't love it, and I haven't prepared any fabric to make more.  I still have a lovely wee stash of blue parts and am happily sewing away on blue blocks.  This is last progress photo I took.

I've probably said it before, but these blocks are so much fun to make.  It's quite simple sewing when anything else seems to hard, and after a while I find myself excited about having stitched, and ready to move onto something more challenging which I might not other otherwise have got into.

I hope next month's colour inspires me more than brown though LOL.

You can check out the much more enthusiastic RSC progress of others at SoScrappy's blog here

Sewalittle Saturday

I have to say a *big* thank you to everyone who has left lovely comments about my wonky stars. It is so encouraging to receive them. I only got a couple of whole blocks and a some part blocks made during the week, so I played catch up today and now have have a dozen new blocks to share.  What do you think about the on point look?  It seems to make them look particularly wonky.

Here's my little supply of "star parts" ready to go.  This should be plenty to see me through to the end of the month. I'm not sure I'll be able to stop making blue stars when Angela at Scrap Happy changes the colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for February.  I love seeing all the blue goodness everyone has been sewing on weekly linkup, here.

My Garden House quilt saw some needle time today too and I added three of these blocks.  I photographed all of them because I wanted to see the effects of the different fabric combinations.  I need 17 of these for the quilt.  They seem to take forever to make!  My favourite is the one with the red stripes. 

A little of bit of organisation

Quilting time is down now that I'm back at work.  But it's not going to be gone altogether.  I tried to do 30 minutes each night during the week so that things don't stagnate on my table. 

I added six new wonky stars.  These are great to sew if you don't feel up to anything that requires careful measuring or calculation (eg after a ratty day at work).  I had some fun with these blocks, using white centres which adds a new dimension.  I also tried a string/crumb centre, which I was very excited about in my imagination, but very disappointed about in reality.  It looked very heavy and full of seams in the centre of the stars.   I loved those little crumbs though so I reused the piece as points on a couple of stars.  That was a much more successful effect.  I'm enjoying these blues.  I have always loved tone on tone blues, and have plenty of strips, even though much of my stash is in storage (that's a long story).  Anyway, here are this week's little stars for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge link.  Check out everyone else's blues on Angela's page here

Allietare - I finally gave in an admitted that I was going to have to buy more black fabric to make the additional blocks needed for a larger quilt.  Yesterday I did that, and it allowed me to get my head into the right space to move forward with this.  I've been cutting, cutting, cutting, so that I can get on with making these blocks.  I *think* I have nearly cut everything I need.  I can't believe how long it took to cut the fabrics for the extra blocks.    This is my organised pile of *heedless geese* parts. 

This week I will able to come home at sit at my machine without having to figure out what I need to cut and sift through piles of fabric. 

And sew, it's 2016

So 2015 has been and gone, thank goodness.  I didn't get much quilting done last year but I plan for that to be different in 2016.  I've begun by working on a few different projects because that seems to be the way that I enjoy quilting the most.

Scrappy Stars  - these are inspired by Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I love making wonky star blocks and have pieced the around other bits of quilting.  They make me smile.  In 2014 and I did Angela's Rainbow Scrap Sampler which is still blocks, and ideas for sashing, but I learned so much from that project.  You can see the Challenge here along with what others are doing this year. 

Allietare - Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt available for a short time on her blog where you see lots of different versions of this.  I have (just today, whoop whoop) finished all my blocks.  I'm going to square the quilt off by adding an extra row so it will be a while before it all goes together.

Garden House - hmm this is a washed out photo taken back in June when my BFF and I went to the beach for a week of sewing.  These past couple of weeks I've done some more work on these blocks.  I remade the house block to fix the colours and the skewed-ness, made some more blocks, carefully calculated my fabric *ie, did a guesstimate* and I think I have enough to finish it.  I fell in love with this quilt all over again so it  is staying out so that I keep it top-of-mind. 

Quilt Along Sampler - In 2014 I started working on the Classic Meets Modern Quilt Along hosted by Erin at Sew At Home Mommy.  I was excited to use some of my hand dyed fabric, and full of good intentions for this sampler but I run out of steam about half way through the year.  It became another part project in a box and I had some feelings of guilt about the poor neglected blocks that I hadn't got round to making.  The more I thought about it the worse it got.  Hmmmm....  Time to reevaluate.  I had listened to podcast recently about just this very topic... moving on the UFOs.  So I laid out what I had done an assessed where it was at.  Looked at the fabric I had.  Looked through the blocks patterns that were left in the Quilt Along and decided that I didn't want to make those... not that there was anything wrong with them, but I had looked at them too many times thinking "I must...." and I was bored with them.  I chose some new blocks to make from other web based Quilt Along and pattern sites.  I've now made 9/12 blocks.  I've cut pieces for the 10th, have a list of the remaining blocks and the website addresses for them, and have chosen a setting, which I have the fabric for.  This UFO is moving on.  So here is the before photo.... when I've made all the blocks I'll update with an after photo.

I think I could have called this post "Pot Luck" because there's a little bit of everything in here LOL.  It should make for a fun, quilting and creative 2016.