Sunday 28 April 2013

What's old is new again!!!

As I was sewing the last of my Churn Dash blocks I suddenly realised I had actually done this all before!!!   
Years & years ago I had made a few "test pattern" blocks following Roberta Horton's book, "Calico and Beyond. " 1986.  I had so much fun that I kept going & ended up with enough blocks to make a lovely quilt.  
Then, it was an Eight Pointed Star quilt, now it's the Churn Dash quilt.
While using mainly low volume fabrics, I did try to have one or two fabrics that were a bit darker just to give a bit of depth, and I used a variety of scrap fabrics old & new, and I didn't worry about placement value.


In this pic thou' I must admit my blocks do look quite similer - late afternoon light I guess!!! 
but all laid out on the family room floor, there is actually quite an interesting play with the scrappy lights & light- ers!!!   I will keep reshuffling the blocks around until I'm happy with the overall look.
In the meantime, we will just have to walk around them!!  (Bob's use to doing that!!)

Wednesday 17 April 2013

A quilt for Doris

Over the years my darling mother -in -law gave  me material.  Most of it was from her skirts/blouses, etc and sadly was usually not something I found v. easy to put into my quilts.   Once she passed away, we were sorting thru' her things and I found a large piece of fabric that had obviously been something once, but she had unpicked it and  it was in a pile with other fabrics in her spare room. 
It was v. vintage looking, with lovely blues & greens. 
It  had a graduated pattern comprising of flowers that were densly clustered along the middle of it with one end  in light floral sprig, and a herringbone sort of check at the other end.
I  had in my mind to make a quilt - using mainly solids, a Denyse Schmidt layout (kind of log cabin but not really), and throw in a few matching prints..........................





Monday 15 April 2013

improvisational patchwork


....... The Quilts of Gee's Bend were created by a group of women who live in the isolated African-American hamlet of Gee's Bend, Alabama. "The compositions of these quilts contrast dramatically with the ordered regularity associated with many styles of Euro-American quiltmaking. There's a brilliant, improvisational range of approaches to composition.....

I have always loved looking at the quilts from Gee's Bend  & been inspired by the idea of using what you had.   I have some days off at present and decided I would try something quite out of my usual comfort zone. I did make a few rules........ use fabrics from my stash/ use mainly solids/ be "free" in terms of piecing/ make something of a practical size/ and, if it doesn't fit - make it!!!!!!!  
Luckily it all went together v. easily.   I also had some suitable caramel backing fabric and have now made the black binding (in anticipation!!),             
so my only real problem now is  - how to quilt it?!?!?!?!?!?




Friday 12 April 2013

Finishing off stuff!!!!

I am juggling quite a few quilt ideas at the moment, mainly in my head mind you!!!! 
Really,  really want to start the Marcelle Medallion Quilt from my new Liberty Love book, as I have quite a few liberties left over still from another project.    However, I have decided to be v. sensible & finish off a few things first before I start anything new.

So I got super busy !!
I completed this months MM bee blocks,
 "Trees Please"  for Karyn.....


and Curved Petal Pod for Mel.....


then I layered up my Charm Squares Liberty Quilt again.   (I had actually done this earlier, but, and I can't now remember why, I decided to change the backing fabric!!) Anyway, now it's already for some machine quilting.......



and then, with still some time to spare, I settled down to make a few more  Churn Dash blocks.......


I'm trying to keep it all low volume, and am finding the challenge to not have quite the usual contrast between block & background alot of fun.  After seaching, I found a few special feedsack pieces that I had purchased ages ago, and will include some of them in too.



All in all, a good days work!!  So now can I start something new?!?!??!?!?