Wooosh. That’s the sound of August and September flying by. While I spent very little time in the studio, I was exercising every day, picking up the pace were I left off way too many months ago. We have been enjoying the most amazing weather this fall, so spending time outdoors has been a pleasure indeed.
I have returned to my studio though, happily working on this and that and stitching up improv blocks. I was planning to write a post about our brilliant day of Improv Round Robin back in September, but as I am having a bit of trouble uploading pictures today, they will have to wait to another day.
I have made progress on a few of the projects from this post, among others the block from the Design a block challenge.
The block was stashed away with a few bits and pieces which would go with it, but I had to play with a few other options first like this batik which I adore. It was way too busy, but you never know until you’ve tried.
Then this fabric caught my eye. It is a beautiful heavyweight woven cotton fabric which I picked up in Birmingham last year,
and with the purple embellishments, it was the perfect companion to the purple string from the bag.
A little slash and stitch later, and the top for a new pillow was finished. It has later been quilted, but those pictures need to be uploaded too. Oh well.
Thanks for stopping by!
Those days don’t come around often, fortunately, but today I couldn’t seem to make my head and hands work together at all. Just look at this mess!
With this design in mind, I cut a star from contact paper and quilted roughly around it several times along the middle sky section of the table runner. It didn’t look too bad, so I moved on to the echoing lines when I really should have left it alone.
Big stitches, little stitches, stitches jumping all over the place. Awful. Oh well, now I have some hand work to do before I try again. The stars could stay I guess, but I think it will be easier with a clean slate.
While free motion quilting was clearly not in the stars, I went looking for something easy to work on, and searched through all my little treasures. In a box, buried under some old Christmas fabrics, I found a bunch of old Christmas blocks.
I remember using some of them for two table toppers years and years ago.
One of the fabrics was particularly horrible, just look at this rather stiff green one. The roughly appliquéd bright red heart did not add anything to it either, at least nothing good.
Now I have unstitched 8 of the blocks, discarding the appliquéd squares and replacing them with something better. Half of the blocks have been stitched back together, and the rest is laid out for tomorrow.
I don’t know when, if ever, these blocks will be finished, but tomorrow will be a great quilting day!
I want to fix my taupe leftovers up with batiks.
This may be a question for Goldilocks – one is too similar in tone, one is to bright and so on – but what do you think?
I recently posted about my effort of taking control of my ever growing collection of works in progress. I’m still enjoying it even though the pile on my desk seems to grow rather than shrink. Oh well, it will show soon enough I guess.
This plastic box holds all the little starts and leftovers I managed to cram into it.
In addition to the Purple book, I keep records on my iPad where I have separate albums for WIPs and Tops ready for quilting. I also have an album with all the quilting drafts made in YouDoodle which I posted about here. Looking at the WIPs, touching
them, and writing about them here are all important ways to bring the projects
back into the conscious-quilting-brain. Whether scientists have or have not
located this particular part of the brain is moot, we all know we have one.
Some of these projects are really old, and some of them are quite young; for some there is a plan, for others the future is more uncertain:
A 2 ½” roll of gorgeous orange fabrics gifted from my friend Marit from Quit It after a workshop last year. I have a plan for these!
Tri and Recs shapes also from Marit. I’m not sure what I will add to them, but it’s going to be fun playing with them!
Fabrics intended for pillowcases for the grandboys purchased in Birmingham in August.
Vinyl intended for pouches for my sister.
The Design a block project from this post for which I once had a plan. Maybe I’ll stick to it.
Leftover 2 ½”*4 ½” rectangles from these pillows. I’m thinking a table runner.
Pink window improv blocks which I recently started. No particular plan for these, but then again – it’s improv.
Shapes to be ironed to scraps and cut out. Once intended for a quilt for our oldest grandson’s kindergarten. As he’s now in third grade, it may be for the youngest kindergarten instead...
Two Christmas place mats that did not happen this past Christmas, but there's another one coming around this year, and next year too.
A hundred houses from back here; I’m thinking a Christmas quilt. I love those houses!
The Spike blocks from back here. I have wanted to play with them forever, but so far – nothing.
The cut-out circle from this quilt. The plan was to make it into a pillow and I think I’ll stick to that plan.
Cut-out circles from this quilt and it's companion which will either be made into two pillows or a table runner.
Leftover heart blocks from this quilt. I used some of them for a Christmas tree mat for my daughter this past Christmas, and I’m thinking to add alternating plain squares and make the rest into a lap quilt – if there are enough heart blocks.
A string project gone bad. I have some unpicking to do before I make them into a quilt. I actually have a plan.
A house block received from Beth from LoveLaughQuilt way back here. I collected a few inherited 80-ties fabrics to add to it, and it’s still sitting here. I think I need to add something brighter to make it sing.
Various squares and rectangles leftover from whatnots back in the day. Quite a few are from recycled table cloths, and I an eager to work with them. I need to have a look through the thrifted goodies for more cloths to make them into a table topper.
Small scraps saved for a table runner, or a small wall quilt, or maybe Christmas cards?
Taupe 2 ½”*4 ½” rectangles leftover from the Mrs Moen Mystery back here. Hmmm, a table runner or a pillow maybe?
That was the content of one box; no wonder that there’s no visible dent in the pile on the desk..
Tomorrow is Norway Day and we’ll be watching the parade. I forgot to bring my flag to the studio today to iron it; I cannot seem to locate the one I have at home and now I’ll have to bring a wrinkly flag. Oh well, as long as my quilting fabrics are properly pressed, right...
Warning: this post is picture heavy!
I have spent some happy hours playing with the Double trouble blocks, now renamed Corner blocks. I stitched the pieces together in no time, partly because they are super easy, and partly from being rejuvenated from playing hide and seek with the grandboys in the studio. There are quite a few empty spaces at my floor and I’m pretty much the only one there at the weekends.
My daughter has wished for something colourful to hang on her living room wall, and I am only too happy to make something for her. Let me put it this way – we don’t usually share the love of colour:) I have been documenting the process with pictures of each and every move hence the heavy picture load.
The blocks are 8”*8”.
The overall feel of the Corner blocks were on the orange side, so I made a few new blocks – two shades of pink and one very bright cold. This was was my starting point with all the blocks going in the same direction.
Twisting some of them this way
turning some the other way.
Arranging from light on the top to dark on the bottom. I quite like this layout and may use it with some of the other blocks.
Rotating some of the blocks. Loved this, but now how the lines seem to go off the top and bottom edges.
Adding two more columns making the width 64” which is appropriate for the space in which it will hang. Creating horizontal lines, and adding more light, medium and dark fabrics. The striped turquoise fabric is from one of her childhood dresses. I only have a scrap left now.
Going back to vertical lines and twisting every other block on the top and bottom so that the lines don’t go off the edge.
Adding another cold block.
Adding another row while keeping the top and three bottom rows as is. The light fabrics in some of the new blocks are too light, they pop too much.
Auditioning replacements
The revamped blocks back in place. Adding those extra squares of the two bright striped fabrics created a much better balance.
Replacing a block which had a bright orange fabric and swapping two others.
Swapping
Swapping
Adding more light by replacing a block with a lighter block.
Swapping
Swapping
This is where I left it. So many possibilities in one simple block!
Looking at it, I want to swap block 3 and 4 in the top row. The quilt-in-progress is already daughter approved as I’d rather know whether she likes it before I put a lot of work into quilting it!
I can’t wait to stitch the blocks together, the appearance changes so much; everything looks so much sharper. Falling in love with old abandoned projects is awesome!
I'll be posting a quick tutorial for these blocks later this week in case you too would like to play with some corner blocks.
Thanks for stopping by:)
