Sewing Saturday from bottles to bats

 

would you like some wine? This pattern is free from Hoffman Fabrics, and I used that turquoise in the upper right corner this month for the RSC color of the month. All from the scrap bin too.

Senor Flamingo Rose and Moonbeam Winery gewurztraminer

I have made them in all the RSC colors of the month since January and will eventually make them into a table runner

I looked at my Kaleidoscope this week and finally chose this fabric as my favorite border

However I only have a half yard and it's directional. So. Sew... it will be pieced into other fabrics I think but didn't feel like rushing it. No pics of that til it's a finished top. 

My friend Diane got me into this free mystery quilt from FatQuarterShop

and I chose to make the bats with fun black and white backgrounds and cool mostly black fabrics

see the little ants on the one on right?

I gave myself permission to use special fabrics for these, as long as I squealed in delight seeing them going together so well! Metallic gold on the ones above. 

this one has golden stars and metallic silver on black body

When the four bats were done I did the four pumpkins.  I had to look at the finished block to do the star my way, without tiny triangles cut, and planning to use sparkly white fabric for the inner star

and using fun orange prints

so when you look at their cutting instructions it is for use of ONE orange fabric, and ONE white fabric background and star. It took some effort to parse it into how many of each piece to cut when one uses a different orange each time, and a sparkly fabric for the star different from background. I also know how to make a quarter square triangle at the top, with two 4" squares instead of piecing tiny little triangles.

Anyway, the pattern is good especially if you are limiting your palette and is really cute however in taking this shot...

after all the little pieces were in and pressed I realized I got some wrong... see??? on the right pumpkin the bottom is pieced wrong which will take a lot of unpicking and moving the black triangles around. 

Oh well, keeps me off the streets

I love seeing the prints used, and am content to be using my collections in this. It might end up fairly small even though these blocks are about 10.5" square, but when they are all released and made I can decide whether to set them in the mystery directions or make a lap quilt with more halloween prints. 

I'm taking a good creativity course, free from Elizabeth Foley, each day this week. It's focus is on painting but it's informing my fabric work as well. For instance she asked Thursday, what's in your special tool kit? what supplies do you love working with, why do you love them, and what do you find yourself reaching for over and over. For instance she asked about 25 questions, which led us to realize who we were and what we need to create. One question was what makes your artwork special to you, or a signature to you.

coloring page in my calendar

My first reaction was a shrug? but once asked a question usually gets answered... For my style, I think it's

 use of many colors that are often saturated, use of light, medium and dark colors for shading, and sparkles. On paintings that means use of white ink often. In fabric that means use of different contrasting shades or use of pencils to add depth. And whimsy is good for me. I love complimentary colors to add drama to a wall hanging too. 

It was interesting to think about. Another question this week was how do you view time in relation to creativity? How do you use your time, do you allow other things to interfere in your creativity? What can you do with a small window of time? What can you do with a large block of time? What makes you more comfortable?

paint anything in 5 minutes

She has brought to our consciousness what kind of things become roadblocks to creating... fears, procrastination, priorities. Will you let everything come before even 5 minutes of creating is allowed? The questions and activities have been enlightening despite her obvious bent to the 20 somethings taking the course. 

I will try to write out some of the questions later, and we can all compare notes on our favorite tools, favorite fabric lines, go to color combinations. I noticed in the comment section when we talked of go to color choices, that we are all VERY different. One person hates orange, I happen to love the exuberance of orange, when asked our favorite pencil one woman said, sharp. 

I laughed and said, yep, me too, me too... 

Happy sewing y'all... and enjoy the other creative outlets in your life too.

LINKING WITH

http://www.inquiringquilter.com/ Wednesday wait loss

Midweek makers wednesdays  

https://scrapatches.blogspot.com/

http://alyciaquilts finished or not! 

can I get a whoop whoop Fridays   

 

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts
lovelaughquilt.mondays

https://chrisknits.wordpress.com/ 

patchwork Sunday                    
oh Scrap Sundays 

 scrap happy Saturdays