Welcome to this week's creativity round-up! Let's get started with a wee chickadee...
I'm still trying to learn to easily use the Gylene Fitzgerald pineapple scrappy ruler. I decided to stop trying to only use 1.5" strips, wasting too much for my taste, and instead cutting squares into fourths to add each new row. I have lots of squares of scraps too.
It's fun to see what shows up in these, and to play with colors. Hers were done very randomly but I am trying to explore the color of the month in RSC so mine are more uniform... wonder how that will work out later in a big quilt? I expect to mix the blocks all around at the end
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| so far, two colors, dark blues, and pinks |
Next up...my SAHRR is a Spring Theme, and I'm basically playing along but not always in a row. This week the challenge is to do square in a square blocks. I liked the floral ones done by the leader but wanted to put my spin on this block.
I started with this free pattern for Peeps! I loved peeps growing up... marshmallow plus more sugar... I liked them going stale as they were chewier. Being allergic to corn (and corn syrup) I no longer enjoy eating them, but sewing them is a different matter...
they are just going into the quilt somewhere, not the block for this month... but cute!
Pattern source: https://sewhooked.com/2017/03/03/free-pattern-friday-peeps-bunnies/
I returned to my friend Linda's book of paper pieced blocks for the birds...
I printed one out full sized, 4.5" unfinished, and one reversed, one smaller and one of those reversed
then had fun finding fabrics in scrap bins to use. I knew any square block could be turned into a S-n-S block with triangles... so some of mine look like they are landing, some are flying to the next worm
I cut a blue sky square 5.5", cut that in fourths for the setting triangles, then trimmed down the block
I still wanted to try one more idea, fussy cutting some precious mousy fabric, trying not to make swiss cheese of it... but wanting to use it... fabrics are generally printed once, so when they are gone, they're gone. I also had a stash of sort of solid colors bought on extreme sale at Joann one year. Set's of 5 colors many in pastels which I didn't have. I'd say they came out to around $3 a yard, and my pieces are all fat quarters (four pieces to a yard) which you can't beat! Gotta get deals when you see them!
and I wondered how would the SnS block look with all different colors around it...
cute! but... I carefully cut around motifs the wrong orientation, see?
which meant I'd have to do another row of triangles to put them into a quilt border...
they are too cute to waste, so I found some pretty floral fabrics to set them with...
I tried fussy cutting the motifs on the diagonal, to see how they'd look set with just the pastels, and those blocks are now sitting alongside the peeps.
Live and learn by doing.
sadly the pastel solid colors kind of recede...
right now it's all on the design wall, and it will be quite a fun puzzle to put all these rows and blocks together into a unified quilt for spring. Whee!
Finally, I started a little hexies project last year, focusing on RSC colors of the month. I have three big petals of 47 hexies each, sewn so far. I basted lots of them around papers, in prep for the next colors and this is how I keep them together... with methods used to corral loose threads on spools
and this week I arranged two more "petals" of hexies, ready to hand stitch at night in front of a good show on tv
I'll end with a quick morning sketch like I use to start the day... some shapes drawn with a brush pen
Kuretake brush with brush and ink inside in pen form, and black pitt pen in bold.
a tiny self portrait drawn with quick lines by the brush glued on the page completes the thought
"what shall I make today? "
linking to these parties:
https://grammysgrid.com/unlimited-link-party
design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts
