Sew many possibilities

Just to mix things up a bit this week with my sewing, I made a foray back into a scrappy project I started earlier this year.  It just so happens that I added this project to Q2 of my Finish-A-Long list, so progress is definitely needed.

 

I really enjoy letting the scraps lead me - basically, this means I just look for similar sized pieces and stitch them together. I keep an eye out for mixing colour value while limiting my palette to blues and greens.  It's a bit like putting together a puzzle, but it adds up to easy stitching and fun results.

I love seeing these tiny pieces become something larger and cohesive.  Scraps are treasures when it comes to patchwork!

My latest strips will find their way into being used with the first section I put together back in Feb. (shown in photo, below)   I haven't quite sorted out how all of this will be combined and I am still debating on whether to make this into a small quilt or whether I should just make a mini to have in my sewing room.

Possibilities abound with scraps!

I probably blather on a bit much about how much I love working with scraps, but I truly see so many possibilities with them.  I love experimenting with them and discovering new ways to make something useful and attractive.   Okay, you can call me crazy. ;o)

Fun Summer Fabrics

Warm sunny days have me daydreaming about the summer ahead.

  No surprise then, that I'd join in the fun to make a bundle of summer themed fabrics from

Sew Fresh Fabrics as a part of this contest.

 

 

 

Summer is all about the outdoors for me.  Camping, hiking and floating down a lazy river are favourite activities to enjoy with my family and with any luck, this summer will see me doing all of these things.  Can't forget biking and visiting summer fairs!  Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?   What do you enjoy doing in the summer?

If you're interested in seeing other summer bundles, click here, and if you want to create your own bundle(s), you have until the end of May to enter.  Details for the contest are HERE.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

 

 

 Hi there ! If you are visiting my blog for the first time while touring the Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome!  

The quilt I'm sharing is a recent finish, so those of you that are not new to my blog will recognize it as my Orange Twirl quilt.  It measures 71" x  90" and started out as a way to use up some leftover orange fabrics from another quilt and try a new block design.

 

 

Little did I know that this simple block and playing with fabric values in orange would captivate me!  The more blocks I made, the more I fell in love with this design.  It didn't take me long to realize that I would like to make the quilt bed-sized.  That presented a problem.  I needed to keep the values contrasting in the quilt, but my collection of orange fabrics was getting slim.  That's when some wonderful blogging friends stepped in to help me out.  I think of their generosity as "Orange-Aid" and their kind help, made my quilt more lovely than I had imagined.

 

 

My next challenge turned out to be  my quilting. 

 I knew from the start how I wanted to free motion quilt, but  once I was underway, I started having second thoughts.  I guess it was a case of not being able to see the forest for the trees. ;o)

  Instead of ripping out all my stitches, I walked away from it. 

 The next day I was able to look at it with fresh eyes and

 

 

I realized the swirly quilting wasn't quite as disappointing as I first thought.

 

 

Sometimes, as was the case with this quilt, it's the fabrics that take center stage, not the quilting... and that's good. 

 

The rest of the quilt came together smoothly. 

 Using a stripe fabric for the backing was a first for me.  Using dots for the binding... was not a first, but is always a favourite.

 



Is there anything happier than a dot binding? ;o)

I would never have guessed that my initial motivations (where's the risk in using leftovers to try a new block, right? ;o) would result in a quilt that makes me smile every time I look at it and give me a whole new outlook on a colour that I used to overlook.

 

 

 Thanks so much for your visit! 

You're always welcome here and I hope you'll click my "follow with Bloglovin" button (sidebar) to keep coming back.

Okay, off you go!  Have fun visiting everyone else in the Festival!

 

 

 

 

Short but sweet?

Popping in with a short post today.  My hubby and I put in a 11 hour day installing yesterday since the job was out of town and we wanted to finish in a day. However, I'm totally feeling the effects today.  I actually woke up with aching hands and feet this morning.  Which I like to think is a testament to how hard I worked and has nothing to do with my age. ;o) 

We totally rocked that kitchen instal!  Nice to know that in the year since I started installing kitchens with my husband, I've become a pretty good helper, making a difference in how much time it takes to get things done (and keeping him laughing through the day ;o)

Today, mundane (but necessary) things like laundry, cooking and cleaning topped the to-do list.

  But you're not here for any of that!  You're probably more interested in what's currently on my design wall, right?...

 

Check it out!

 

  Yes, I now have 3 blocks complete for my Single Girl baby quilt. I can hardly wait to finish this girly sweet top! 

  My design wall  looks better than ever with the Single Girl blocks next to the quilt top,

 Garden Plot (which is awaiting finishing). 

 Somehow those circles look extra pretty next to those squares. ;o)  More to show soon....

Curves, Baby!

Throwing Setting aside (for the moment), my many other sewing projects, I'm stitching like crazy on the baby quilt I started on Mother's Day.  I'm using Denyse Schmidt's Single Girl quilt pattern with assorted pink and green fabrics from my stash.

 

The last time I pieced curves was for my One Heart Reading Pillow.

Single Girl is a great pattern( although I remember initially be put off by the idea of cutting all those templates for the pieces to make the blocks.  ;o)

 

Partly due to the fact that I don't have any template plastic on hand, (for cutting templates from plastic and tracing around them on my fabric), and partly because I'm lazy... I came up with another idea.  I photocopied all the small pattern pieces and traced the larger pieces onto freezer paper.  This allows me to iron the pattern piece onto the fabric for ease in cutting (no pinning or tracing necessary!).  It also worked brilliantly for keeping those pieces organized for stitching.



Pieces cut and organized by quadrant for one block. Makes for easy chain piecing.

The next potentially tricky bit to this block design, is sewing those curves.  Following the pattern instructions, pins are the way to go with making those curved seams align without struggle.  



Sewing the inner circle seam line for one quadrant.

 

Love those pieced curves, baby! ;o)

 

I toyed around with using different low-volume fabrics for the block background
(because I love this one by Jolene and this one by Chase... such gorgeous Single Girl quilts!),
but I decided that
 Sherbet Pips Play Dot in Vanilla is too perfect not to use solely as the background.

 

Two blocks done, two to go!

  I should have a finished quilt top complete before the end of the week.  Now, what do you want to bet that my SIL has a little boy and my Single Girl quilt will need to be made again in new colours... as a Single Boy quilt? LOL