Simple sewing

Sometimes a girl just has to sew! 

I had some fabric left over from another quilt:

This is the back of a project that I can’t show just yet. The fabric was in a pile received when a family cleaned out their mother’s sewing room and donated most of her stash.  I decided to use the leftovers in a rail fence quilt, 2.5” strips, 6 inch blocks.  A little figuring showed that I could set aside enough for borders and use the remainder for the strips.

Needed something to go with it, and I came up with these:

These were chosen not because they were the BEST fabrics to go with the feature fabric, but because they would work, they had been waiting a long time to be used and there was enough of each one.  The two on the right are both recycled garments.  I spent some time picking out the darts on the flowered shirt.

Here are the blocks on the wall:

I’m thinking a narrow dark border, perhaps navy or brown, before adding the print.  This will work out to the right size for a prayer quilt, so it will be donated to the quilting group at church.  And before that I can use it as a sample for a beginner’s quilting class coming up soon. 

Technorati Tags: scrap quilt,rail fence,recycled fabric

Baby quilt!

These pieces are on my design wall today.  This project is still in progress – I promise I’ll show it when it is done.

I did finish a project recently.  This quilt is for a special baby girl.

Pattern is from Karla Alexander’s book Stack the Deck Revisited.  The technique is fun and quick and I was able to use some fabrics in girlie colours.  I hope the baby and her mother enjoy using the quilt as much as I enjoyed making it.

Technorati Tags: baby quilt,stack the deck

New project for Scrap Squad 2014

My latest scrappy project made for Quiltmaker Magazine’s Scrap Squad is up on the Quilty Pleasures blog!  Be sure to check it out:

http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/2014/10/scrap-quilt-ideas-louisa-robertson/

I had a lot of fun with all the twists and turns of making my quilt. 

I used these colours from photos collected on walks around the neighbourhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The original quilt is in the November/December issue of Quiltmaker magazine.  The designer named her quilt Christmas Ribbons.  I call my version Corn Maze.  Can you find the path that runs all the way through it?

Technorati Tags: Scrap Squad 2014,scrappy quilt

Playing with blocks and scraps

Sometimes quilters just gotta play!  The Sew Scrappy Club has been playing with the simple little Puss in the Corner Block.

It is really just a basic 9-patch with different proportions. 

We’ve discovered that the blocks set next to each other can give some interesting results.

And playing a bit more gives another look.

I have been working from the scrap bin.  This project used the LAST BIT of several fabrics that have been around for many years.   

Technorati Tags: scrap quilt,Scrappy Club,Puss in the Corner

On my wall

Not a new quilt, but a favorite.

I like to hang up this quilt in August. The colours reflect what I see out the window.  Not many weeks ago everything was green and lush but now the bunchgrass on the hills is scorched brown from the summer heat and the Ponderosa pines with their dark coppery trunks loom dark green.  I love this quilt, not just the fabric choices, but the pieced plaid border, not quite straight, and the corners, two mitred, two not mitred.

Tall Pines and Sunshine

The block was adapted from one in Block Base.  I've always meant to make this again, thinking it might work in solid fabrics.  I'll have to see what's in the stash....

My Christmas Quilt

 

For years I’ve wished for a Christmas quilt.  Wall quilts – oh yes, I have plenty of those for the Christmas season.  Table runners, too.  But not a real put-it-on-the bed or fold-it-on-the-back-of-the-couch QUILT specifically for the Christmas season.

My problem was that I was waiting to be inspired, and I inevitably would get the inspiration early in December – that doesn’t work!  Good intentions – I could finish this in January and be ready for NEXT Christmas, but that never happened, either.

So when the current Scrap Squad project decided it would look good in green and red I was delighted.  I made Christmas Wreath --  in July --  and it is all finished and everything!!  Full story on the Quilty Pleasures blog.  Look here.  And while you are there, check out the rest of the Scrap Squad posts – our team has been making some great quilts this year. 

 

Technorati Tags: Scrap Squad 2014,Christmas,scrap quilt

Leaders and Enders

A couple of years ago, Bonnie Hunter issued a challenge to make Spool blocks as “leaders and enders”. 

 

I’ve long embraced the principle that one always has another seam to feed into the machine to avoid wasting that few inches of thread between pieces, so I was quite happy to start making 3” spool blocks.

 

 

 

 

But I also had a good collection of squares, so I made 3” nine-patch blocks as well.  (Yes, a few of those one inch squares are pieced – mustn’t waste fabric, you know!)

 

 

 

 

 

I decided that the blocks could play happily together, and I started turning them into these:

There are enough units in the box to play with now, so I have a few up on the wall.  I really like them set straight like this:

 

But maybe they could go on point.

 

No need to decide yet, I suppose.  There are still mounds of fabric to work through before I have enough for a quilt top. 

Technorati Tags: leaders and enders,nine-patch blocks,spool blocks,scrap quilt