Friday, August 31, 2018

100 Kona Tula Blocks | 100 Days, 100 Blocks

I joined in on the 100 Days, 100 Blocks Challenge for 2018.

So far 56 blocks and going strong!

The challenge is to make the 100 blocks of fabric designer Tula Pink's "City Sampler". I borrowed the book off a friend and have been steadily making blocks for the last two months. Every block is 6.5" square, and you can put them together straight or you can sash-and-post them. Some people colour-scheme theirs; I haven't, I'm just making it with whatever I can throw together. And at the end, there will be a quilt.

I'm a little over halfway through the book, and it's pretty slow going...

#100konatulablocks

#100konatulablocks

#100konatulablocks

#100konatulablocks

#100konatulablocks

#100konatulablocks

It's actually been really helpful to have the challenge on to instagram one block a day for the last two months. It's a routine - something to do, a standard to meet. I find the regularity of "one a day" also helps keep me from falling behind. Although, as we head into the second half, the pressure is going to build, both to avoid just letting it all go ("I've done so much, I can afford to relax") and to avoid feeling overwhelmed ("I've been doing this so long...").

At this point, I also need to start looking more at which colours I'm using to make sure I get a reasonable spread across the quilt.

#100konatulablocks The story so far...

And then the final questions of sashing/posting or just leave them straight...

Expect another post sometime in October!

Thursday, August 2, 2018

The Star Trek Discovery Shiloh Satchel

In spite of my struggles with the Shiloh Satchel, I've made four of the damn things.

1. Oh Deer! It's Gots Pockets! (#ohdearpockets)

#shilohsatchel It's Gotses Pocketses!

2. Mendocino Mermaid Satchel (#mermaidsatchel)
Finished Mermaids #shilohsatchel this afternoon before family dinner! #Saturdaynightcraftalong with @barefootcrafter

3. The Hulk Satchel (#hulksatchel)

and 4. The Disco Shiloh (#discoshiloh)

Blue Leather from Tandy Leather and Tula Pink True Colors fabric inside and out, with hardware from Pile o'Fabric and Studio Mio (or possibly Voodoo Rabbit - I'm really bad at remembering where I get specific items from).

Anyway, I have a love-hate relationship with leather; it's so pretty when you use it! But it's such a bother to sew!

The geeky side has a leather stitched logo, which I had to hand-stitch on, after pre-piercing the outline.

#discoshiloh

And the 'undercover' side has the sleeve-join detail from the Star Trek Discovery uniforms:

#discoshiloh

Although who's to say what's geeky and what's not these days, with Marvel movies in the box-office and Game of Thrones on the TV? Comic heroes, sci-fi, and fantasy are out in the open, even if they're not adopted by everyone.