What if I....play.

So you know me, I am always thinking about Color and how to challenge my regular choices...
I keep coming back to, " why do i have TWO cubbies of BLUE fabric when I rarely use blue?"

So I thought of a quick challenge, I could try using BLUE, the color I seem to avoid.

(what color do you avoid?)

I chose 4  STRONG colors, Green red royal blue and purple, 
and chose a light blue to surround them.

 I selected the without thinking to much about them, And I sewed them together any which way.
Then I made sure that I had a light blue color all the way around the four scraps.

Here you can see how I put it together...  Every block I make will be different.

I like the idea of the Contrast and the varied shape the scraps made.

Can you select a color you avoid?

And try the same technique?  One little 8" block, 15 minutes to play. That's it.

I Would love to see you all give a go... Maybe we will feel better about the color we avoid afterwards!
I think it may make a dent in my BLUE stash too! More room then for my favorite reds and yellows! LOL!


Post and share your play time!


I challenge you to one block.
Maybe it will be like potato chips, can you make just one?

can't get enough of them

Triangles galore blocks, that is.  Just thought I'd show the latest two.  I have one more cut and partially sewn, 8 more with fabric sorted, and a whole stack of fabric waiting for review.  I'll be making this block for a while.  It is a wonderful way to experiment.  My camera isn't picking up the colors well...

background of dark points is an intense grape- purple.

background of dark points is a brownish maroon.

Intuition Quilt; it's finished!

My Intuition Quilt, “Listen to your heart”, was finished and wrapped up about half an hour before my daughter came over to celebrate her birthday. It was rather early in the morning, before proper daylight, so please do excuse the bad lighting.

I love everything about this quilt, and even though I would like to keep it for myself, I love it even more because my daughter is so happy with it. The corners are square and the sides are straight so pictures actually do lie sometimes.


The colours look more correct with the flash on, that doesn’t happen too often, does it.

It is heavily quilted using a walking foot and 3 different varigated threads

It has an appliquéd heart made from self made fabric.

and 3 different fabrics in the binding; one on the top,

one on the sides

and one on the bottom.

I know it has taken me forever to finish this quilt, but I have enjoyed every single piece of fabric and stitch I have put into it. Thank you, Victoria!

Fractured crumb blocks!

I was playing around with some scraps, when I discovered this new way to use crumb blocks! 

I had made a few blocks and put them on my design wall, with the idea of sashing each little block with a solid fabric and making a small quilt. But, after putting sashing on three sides of two pieces, I happened to place them next to each other and I got a whole new design idea. 

*Note* You'll see me using "square" and "block" interchangeably ... they're the same to me!

Add sashing to opposite ends of your squares, then begin to pair them up by twos.  For now, just ignore the relative size of each square ... we'll deal with that later.  If they look good together, they're a pair!

I think a rectanglular shape works really well for this pattern. 

Basically, you add sashing to opposite ends of your squares, trim them even, pair them up and add sashing.... I put a full tutorial on my blog - enjoy! 

Linda

My attempt of Victoria's PDF pattern

I decided I needed to try the triangle block that Victoria posted. It took a little more than 15 minutes but it was fun to try a challenge.  My points are way off but for a first time I think it looks ok.

To make the paper patterns to sew the fabric on , I traced the pdf that I printed.  My printer stopped working for some reason and I only had one copy so I had to trace them.  I do not have a light box but I have a sewing machine table that has a clear inset for my machine.  Here is how I 'made' my light box.  It worked great.  I guess out of necessity comes invention..

PDF

Paper piecing  PDF is here click here

Triangle's Galore
15" block

Triangles Galore... another try... success!

While Victoria and Jackie were beavering to create and test the paper piecing pattern for the Triangles Galore Block, I was stubbornly  doggedly determined to figure out why I had problems with my first effort and what to do to avoid them.  After all, some people were able to make the block just fine, while others reported problems.

Here's a picture of what caused my problems and hence ballooning center of the block. Note that upon sewing, the bottom (center bottom) triangle ends up wider than the three top sewn triangles.  This happened because I matched the points of the three top triangles and sewed the seam.  With that seam, there goes 1/4 inch on each side as far as the overall width is concerned.

To fix this, I decided I needed to know where all the seams intersect.  I measured 1/4 inch on all sides and put little hatch marks at the intersect points.

 Then I pinned the pieces AT THESE POINTS before sewing the seams.

 This little step made all the difference.  The triangle pieces were off set just enough that they lined up perfectly with the bottom triangle when it was sewn on.

The finished block.  No trimming down of the block required!  Whew!

If you should want to do the traditional piecing method, instead of paper piecing, it is very much worth your time to do the above step.

Bias edges will stretch easily, so pinning carefully and careful sewing will help keep those problems at bay.  Try not to make mistakes and rip out the threads.  Repeated unsewing will stretch the edges.  That is how I got the "wee bit of ballooning" when I finished my first block for the last time.

Hope this helps!paper piecing pattern for the Triangles Galore Block

CLICK FOR Victoria's FREE paper piecing PDF  HERE

Wonky Log Cabin Style blocks

I have all these stupid really nice shirts that have been cut up for two, count them TWO, quilts already.  They are in boxes ready to go to retreat and get sewn together.  But I STILL have all these shirt pieces and the pile doesn't seem to be going down any bit.  Why doesn't my favorite $14 a yard material do that?

So yesterday I decided to test a few log cabin like blocks with the bits and pieces.  Nice.

I made more today.  Sixteen more in fact.  I do need two additional ones but I think i can do those tomorrow.

Too dark

Too light

I wanted to see what kind of background would look good.  So I got out several and made my choice.  I am thinking to set them wonky like, but I may work out some shadows.  I keep seeing the blocks in my head with shadows.  (I keep seeing the block in shadows in my head)  Hmmm.  Oh, In my head, I keep seeing the block with shadows....that's the correct grammar!  LOL.

I think I can work this out.

  This orangy yellow was perfect!

   

Just right

                      Does this look like a shadow to you?  I want it to look          
                                        like it is floating!

Shadow?

glen

Tried again, paper pieced style

Jackie is here with me this weekend, and I asked her to go over my block as she is an excellent paper piecer.  I figured she would be the one to test my pattern and see what's up...  We took my exact pattern, made it into a paper pieced template, and made each unit.

When we finished each unit, we trimmed it to size. 

Then we joined each unit by pinning exactly at critical intersections:
EVEN when you traditional piece this block you must PIN at these points.

THE TRADITIONAL PATTERN I POSTED IS CORRECT.

TOP CORNER, 

CENTER POINT, 

BOTTOM POINT. see arrows.

Stitch line. 

Press seam open, then join next unit and repeat the pinning process.

 

Once you have 4 units together, join the OTHER 4 and join your two halves,

matching at the critical points.  Press seams open.

 We tore the paper off, and laid it down and shot this picture...It lays flat... This has not been pressed.

Kathy mentioned, to cut two squares at 5 1/2" and cut once so the corners are not on the bias.

 I laid the corners on  overlapping the edges, and trimmed afterwards so they would be perfect.

 There she is... (It's a "she" of course) ;-)

And all the beauties playing nicely....

If you choose to try this method,

PAPER PIECING PDF IS HERE
also above click tutorials... ;-)

PIN PIN PIN ! most important!

The paper piecing adds stability while piecing.

Although we did the paper piecing method,

we used the original template to draft the piecing, so both methods work.

Feel free to use the method you are most comfortable with,

but the first method I had shown you, realize it is BIAS piecing, which can be difficult.

triangles galore... finally

I finally put together a triangle star following Victoria's tutorial.  I have to admit I had problems and despite my best efforts, the center section puffed up.  I took it apart and measured it again and again.  Somehow, the central green triangles I used were too big for the top triangles, so I trimmed them down and tried again.  That worked. I got it together.   It is still a wee bit puffy in the middle, but passable for liberated me.  Here it is.  

I have another set of triangles cut out for another star... I love the look of this block.  Hopefully this next effort will go together with NO problems.

Thanks to Victoria for a fun block design.

A little bitty quilt?

I was fooling around with crumbs in between my neatening up sessions, and I put a few blocks on the design wall just to get them out of the way.  I kept glancing at the blocks as I was sorting fabrics and cleaning, and I thought to myself  "I wonder ... can these be a tiny little quilt just as they are, if I just framed them with sashing?"

I think so!  My thought is to give each block some kind of shape, then sash them and decide on either a vertical or horizontal layout.  I can use the little finished quilt to practice my free motion quilting! 

More later, when I get it done.

Linda

more hearts

Here you go Sherri!  I made a couple cutie hearts for your FEBRUARY  new'bee block (tutorial here), and will send along the extra bits to make more. 
I'm sorry I don't have much WHITE in my stash! I had only these few pieces to make some borders...

I'll get these in the mail today...