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...







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.


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

Expect another post sometime in October!

New York Beauty

The New York Beauty Block quilt seems to be one of those things you have to be in the mood to do!

I finally picked my colours, printed out some templates and began sewing things together! I'm going with strong reds and yellows for the spikes and curve fills, blues batik-washes for the background, and greens for the centres, with other colours to be included as required.

Block 0 was relatively painless to make and looks quite good!



But I'm a bit annoyed with my colour choices for Block 1 because the orange half-spikes blend into the red background rather than contrasting as I wanted.



Oh well. I'm not going to make that block again! Far too finicky to do more than once! I will make another Block 0, though, seeing as I have the pattern printed out and it's quite an easy block to make. And maybe I'll switch the colours around to mix things up a bit. Could be interesting...



That's photographed in artificial light. I might try to take a decent one by daylight tomorrow.

I have to do some more cutting out of pieces for Blocks 5, 7, and 8, but will hope to get at least one down, maybe two, by later this week.

But currently, they're in little plastic bags, with their notes on assembly, waiting to get the rest of their pieces so they can be sewn together!



Naturally I don't like my colour choices right now as much as I like the colour choices of some of the others in the flickr group.

There's just so much variation and style in the photos in the flickr group! I love how quilting is at once a mix of the pattern you're using and the fabric choices the quilter makes.

To B(order) or not To B(order)?

I always hate getting to the part where I have to add borders in to a quilt. I can never decide whether it needs a border or not. Or even how much border it should have.


I was going to leave it like that. Nice and simple. Focus on the blocks and the layout and the piecing and not complicate it with borders.

But I have a bunch of HSTs, some of which are roughly hand-sewn and which need using, and which are the right colour and suitably scrappy...

Which then brings up the question of the type of border it should have.

These things are never easy to decide!

Boxes?


Blocks?


Zig Zags?


Or Flying Geese?
Ugh. Choices. I am chronically indecisive....at least, I think I am. Am I? Or maybe I'm not?

Ultimately, I picked the one with the least sewing - the Flying Geese. Because the least effort for the best effect is always a good way to go for me!

Plus, I like the 'blank space' effect that the flying geese blocks produce.

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner!

Isn't it preeeeetty? So so preeeeeetty!

It was still a lot of sewing, mind! Two episodes of Castle - the one with the handcuffs and the 2nd half of the one with the national security threat - and three episodes of Sherlock - the one introducing Moriarty, the one with Irene Adler (*OMG LOVE*), and the Hounds of Baskerville.

My day is done. (And nearly gone the sun!)

And that's #5 for the year! And it's not even April!

I even have HSTs left over for the Festival of Half Square Triangles being put on by Megan over at Canoe Ridge Creations!!



HOWZAT?

Scrap Attack QAL: Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner

"Things are gonna get a little interesting around here..."
"Define 'interesting'."
"Oh God, Oh God, we're all gonna die?"
Wash & Mal, Serenity
So, spent yesterday afternoon watching episodes of Castle, Sherlock, and Lost Girl, and sewing 'Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner' together.

Sherlock is actually really very difficult to watch while sewing - there's a lot of visual stuff on the screen which you have to keep an eye on. Castle is easy to watch and Lost Girl nearly as simple.

But you don't want to hear about my fannish viewing habits. You've come for my Scrap Attack quilt!

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner (a.k.a. NPBITC or "no problem, bitches!") is nearly done!



It's very...scrappy. Which is the intention, I know, only I'm not used to this kind of scrappiness in my quilts - they usually look a lot more organised and colour co-ordinated!

It's not a bad look, it just takes some getting used to.



It is rather fun playing 'I Spy' with the fabrics though. "That's Terrain and that's Odyssea and that's Swoon and that's Central Park..."

It needs a border. I just have to decide what. I'm thinking one wide plain one in creams/whites, and one thin one composed of scrappy HSTs.

And then I have to sew it all together. Before the 28th.

It may not be interesting to the level of "oh God, Oh God, we're all gonna die" but it will certainly be 'interesting' for me!

Scrap Attack QAL!

I've decided to join in with the Scrap Attack QAL over at Stitched In Color - my first QAL of the year!

I've been thinking of getting rid of a bunch of my scraps for a while now - I have a great many selvedge strings, thanks to my own 12-quilts-in-2011 project, and have been threatening to make a string quilt for nearly six months now.



This might be my opportunity to get a move on it!

I'm a little uncertain about exactly what kind of fabric one uses as the backing block for a string quilt. I have some craft cottons which are good solid materials, just not quilting quality. And there's some craft calico in my stash - leftover from when I was making the Steampunk Victoriana dress. Again, it's good solid material, just not quilting quality.

Does it matter terribly much not to use 'quilting quality cotton'? There's a part of me that rebels at using 'good' fabric where it's not going to be seen!

Technically, my Drunkard's Path should fit the bill for a Scrap Attack quilt, too - the dark fabric is from stash, but the coloured fabrics are scraps of everything else. Only, I have no idea how long it will take to complete the Drunkard's Path quilt, seeing as I'm piecing the blocks by hand. I hope to have a wad of blocks when I get back from China and HK, but who knows?



Then (on yet another hand) there's also the ideas in 'Crazy For Scraps' by Sally Schneider - I'm really liking the askew quilt (halfway down the page) - I love that block, although I'm not sure I have large enough scraps for it. So many of my scraps are smaller bits and pieces (like the selvedges).

So many scraps and ideas! So little time!

The Scrap Attack Flickr Group

Charmed Prints QAL: layout and blocks

Sadly, the light was not the best and I was just using my camera phone, so the photography isn't very good.

Got the layout worked out last week, but didn't get around to making the blocks or cutting the sashing until the weekend.

In spite of my protests that I wanted a dark colour, I eventually settled on white. White sashing, white background. It's just simpler.

Virigina Star blocks




It actually got a bit tricksy here, having to re-calculate how large the pieces had to be for a finished block size of 10".


Greek Cross blocks
Unfortunately, for the Greek Cross, there is no easy way to get a finished block size of 10". As a result, the blocks are 9" finished and 9.5" unfinished. I'll just add a white border around it - it may look a little odd, but...can't really be helped.



And then this Greek Cross block turned into a Churn Dash...


I have contemplated making another Churn Dash and another Greek Cross, but that might make a few too many blocks to easily scatter about the quilt layout.

with the focus blocks


It looks pretty good, I think!

So far, the focus blocks have been mostly the one colour. It might be interesting to put two or maybe three colours into a block.

Charmed Prints QAL: fabric choices

When looking at this QAL, I pretty much decided that the planned quilt size was too small from the get-go.

So I figured I'd use a layer cake instead of a charm pack and take it from there.

Cue the layer cake of Momo's Odyssea that I bought a couple of months back!


Lots of colours, lovely patterns, large prints and small prints and prints that are in-between...

The first instructions are due to be posted Tuesday US time, so...here's waiting!

Dead Simple QAL - palette choices

Time for colour choices!

The colours in the photos don't exactly match the colours of the cards...I think my camera phone colour-adjusts into the blue range, which means the shades don't match exactly. Plus, it's tricky to compare a backlit graphic on a computer or phone screen with a fabric.

















I know the Dead Simple QAL is supposed to be, well, dead simple, but I'm thinking of doing it in concert with the Bloggers Quilt Uber-Fest QAL that's taking place in the 1st half of October. Because, really, I already did my 'Dead Simple' quilt - The Colour Of Magic. Sure, I could do it again, but I'm still new enough to quilting that I'd like to try different blocks - have a range of styles and materials.

WIP Wednesday #14

I figured I should start numbering these. :)



Not a lot of progress this week - mostly finishing the borders on the Kaleidoscope quilt for Don't Call Me Betsy's QAL:



Colour is slightly yellowish because I took it on my smartphone camera.

Since I'm trying to piece together the back, I'm almost certainly not going to get it done by the due date. Just don't have the time right now.

Some shots setting up the back:

A block:


Most of the back fabrics laid out:


The purple will go all the way to the edge, but I'm trying different fabrics for the middle section to see how they work out.

Then it's just basting, quilting, and binding and then it's done!! (Okay, so maybe I'm never gonna do this again - it's just too much effort!)

I'm going to present Kate and Chris' quilt tonight at bible study: hope they like it!

WIP Wednesday

started
1. The binding on Kate and Chris' quilt.

That's a very old pic of the raw quilt top. It's since been quilted. It's coming along a lot faster than one for Owen and Megs I finished earlier this week. I think it's because this backing is pure cotton. I think that the backing for Owen and Megs' quilt was polycotton. Will have to warn them about that.

2. String Block cushion cover:



Made from scraps leftover from trimming the "Cathedral Windows Quilt" I made for Rachel L in 2007, and the corresponding quilt I made for myself in 2008.

3. Batik 'coins' cushion cover:



Also made from the scraps of those two quilts. The black works really well as a background - but I think the fabric could be a problem since I think it's a polycotton blend. Oops?

4. Don't Call Me Betsy Kaleidoscope Quilt - Colour Attempt #2



The change in colour scheme has totally enthused me about this quilt. Given how cold, rainy, and grey Sydney is right now, it's very much needed!

A pic of the layout:


The current state of play:


It's a bit of a mess, but hey - WIP, right?

A focus on the blocks that are actually sewn together.


Look at those points! I don't think I've ever had anything match up so perfectly before!


I still have all the pieces I cut for the original colour scheme - I think I might mix it all up and see how it works. Perhaps with some golds and patterns to move things along?