Friday Night Sew In

My FNSI was spent at a class taught by my friend Dahn at the quilt store…. and we did no sewing!  This is a three part class in which we are making a cardinal wall hanging.  The first class was about painting the picture.  Then we will thread paint and embellish it.   So far it is looking good…

We traced the drawing using a projector.  This is a photo taken by someone whose name I can’t remember.  I’ll get it at the next class. 

Updated to add – I got the name from Dahn’s blog – Travis Lowe took the original photograph.

Here are a couple of other versions… that’s Dahn on the right trying to steal Karen’s bird…

And here she has made her escape with the bird.  I don’t know what that weird sign she is making towards Louise’s bird is supposed to mean, but originally she was holding it higher and it looked like she was sucking her thumb …

Lynn, stop now if you don’t want to see the preview of your block…

 

 

Earlier in the day I did make my Adventure Block for Lynn and sent it off in the mail. 

Janet

Lots of lovely mail

Some wonderful winnings and swaps have been arriving in the mail….

I won this fat quarter bundle of the Coral Salt Water line by Tula Pink from Caitlin during the Sew Mama Sew giveaway.  So far I’ve just patted it and admired it.

 

Also from the Sew Mama Sew giveaway I won the sweet little stars from Leonie.  These just arrived the other day which means they took almost a month to travel from Germany.  Since they are too late to hang on my Christmas tree I am looking around for another spot to display them.  I thought they might go on my “whatever it is you call this thing”, but then I realized it would be too hot.

And my third win was from the Quilters Blog Hop party.  Sandi sent me her interesting book which features a new and different way of piecing blocks.  I haven’t tried her method out yet but I am definitely going to. 

And Sew Sisters Quilt Shop sent me a lovely thank-you gift for participating in their hop and giveaway.  A Sew Sisters t-shirt and a Sew Sisters shop pin, a charm pack of Everlastings by Sandy Gervais and a “Tasty” runner pattern from Julie of Jaybird Quilts.

Such a lot of nice gifts!  Thank you all. 

I’ve got swap receipts to show as well but I think they will have to wait for my next post as it is my bedtime  

Janet

This is why I never get anything done!

I’ve had a hiatus from Easy Street for the last week or so.  I have had all the fabric sitting out waiting for me to finish cutting all the pieces, but other things clamoured louder for attention.  Like some overdue swap items…

Aileen was my partner for the November Adventure Block swap.  She kindly told me not to worry about getting the block done on time as I was on holiday.  The only problem is that I am the kind of person who does everything at the last minute.  So if someone tells me to take my time and get it done when I have time…. well I might never have time!  Aileen wanted a wonky house block in bright, crazy colours.  I hope this fits the bill.  I figured that the rain drops that are rising instead of dropping add to the wonkiness.

And then when I told Joanne that I was going to be late with her December hexies, she said not to worry about doing them at all if I was too busy.  Talk about letting me off the hook!  But I try to be a good swapper and complete my commitments, even though sometimes they are late.  So I made these hexies for Joanne this week.

Then the local craft club decided that we need to do a round of baby quilts to donate to the nursing station.  And I had been looking at Persimon Dreams Project Quilting challenge and I was excited about the square in a square block.  And I received a bag of scraps with around 150 blocks in yellow/orange, hot pink and a flower print.  Pair these with a light blue and here is the baby quilt I’m working on!  My only placement rules were alternating square in squares and solids and that no outside colour could go beside itself.

I thought I’d get all the blocks and rows sewn together this week after work but …..

And then I read a someone’s post for the Year of the Finished Project and they said the rules are that you have to finish a project before you start a new one.  Whoops!  Blew that.  (But I reread the rules and each person actually makes their own rules for themselves.  So all I have to do is finish the Easy Street top in January.  Yikes!)

I will try and get back tomorrow with some recent mail that I need to show off  

Oh and my e-mail wasn’t working from the 9th to the 15th – if you sent me an e-mail during that time and haven’t heard back….. I didn’t receive it.

Janet

Another take on Easy Street

I decided that before I went any further with making decisions about what fabrics to use where and cutting up a bunch of pieces, that I needed to set up two more blocks so I could really get an idea of the design.  Am I ever glad I did that! 

I now understand which way the four patches are supposed to turn and I see that changing out the greens that I was thinking of just won’t do because it interrupts the chain. 

Here is what it looks like with the dark grey and the greens…

I did conjecture that if I want to tone down the green a bit, the way to do that would be to change out the four patch greens in the top and bottom block.  They would have to be changed to blue because there is already a lot of purple going on there.  This is what it looks like with that change…

What do you think?  I’m thinking that the blue makes it too dark.

I was going to try it with the light greys as well, getting rid of the medium grey that I incorporated in the mix altogether.

But I would have had to unpick, cut and sew and I had enough for this evening.  I may try that tomorrow.

Janet

And another design consideration…

I went out for supper and when I came home I realized that there is something I don’t quite like about the layout I have up on the design wall.  There is a bit too much green and it is overwhelming.  So I switched out some of the green squares for purple squares.  What do you think? 

All the green blocks Bonnie intended there to be

 

 

 

 

Some of the green blocks switched out for purples.

 

 

 

 

And some of them switched out for blues.

 

 

 

 

(You may notice as well that I turned the four corner four patches on the left hand block.  I’m not sure yet which way they look best.)

Janet

Looking for feedback

When I made the first step for Easy Street they were supposed to be in grey and white/blacks with more white than black.  Since I had very few white/blacks I decided to use a yellow/orange instead as I had lots of it in my stash.

Then in step two Bonnie announced that we wouldn’t be using any more grey in the quilt.  Well I had a huge piece of grey – four metres to start with – and probably about two metres all together of the yellow oranges so I thought I would just continue with the grey as a substitute for the white/blacks in the quilt.  I e-mailed Bonnie and asked her if she thought that would work and she said yes.

Then we got to step six where she wanted us to cut two white/black blocks and sew them together.  I started thinking that if I used my grey for that block the quilt would be too dark.  So I got the bright idea of finding some lighter greys to use for those blocks and for one other small block that adjoins the grey and purple flying geese. 

So today I have one of each block laid out, once using the lighter greys in those two spots above and once using the original dark grey.

  light greys in the eight two-patch squares in the left hand block and in the four flying goose and grey squares in the right had block.  All other grey using the dark grey.

 

 

 

  dark grey in all parts of the quilt where Bonnie used white/blacks

 

 

 

 

What do you think?  I kind of think it is a no-brainer now that I see it, but I’d like your opinion.  These blocks are not sewn together so it isn’t a huge deal to go either way.

Janet

What I did today…

I am linking up with two blogs -

Lynne at Never Too Hot to Stitch is hosting the Year of the Finished Project.  On the first Thursday of the month you post what projects you plan to finish that month.

And Cheryl at Gone Stitchin' is hosting Friday Night with Friends on the first Friday of the month.

Okay I know it isn’t Thursday and that it is Saturday in Australia where Cheryl lives, but this is what is working for me.  It is Friday night here and I’m a day late posting for The Year of the Finished Project….

This evening I worked on Easy Street.  I got the pieces cut for Step 4 and Step 5 and the purple blocks from Step 7.  I have seen at least one person who commented that these steps were so easy that it only took her about two hours to complete them.  Well it took me about four hours just to cut the pieces and I haven’t sewn any together!  I guess I’m slow. 

For the month of January my goal is to finish the top of Easy Street.  I think I should be able to get this done.  I have four more sets of blocks to cut, but they are fairly simple.  And then I have to sew, sew, sew.  I am going to put one of each block together tomorrow just to make sure I like my solution to my fabric conundrum. 

The other thing I plan to get caught up with and stay on top of in January is my swap blocks (I’m behind on two swap items).  I’ve gone and signed up for many swaps again.  Sheesh – I can’t seem to help myself.  They just look so interesting.  These are my current swaps:

1. Six inch quilt block swap – 2 per month – to be mailed by the 15th

2. Bee Balm block swap – starts in February – my month is November

3. Block swap adventure – 1 - 12.5 in block – mail by the 25th

4. Inchy hexagon swap – 2 hexies per month

5. MMM Round Robin – starts in February & runs for six months

6. Quilt You Be Mine  Round Robin – only four people in a group & it will be done the end of February but my December block isn’t here yet so I will have two to complete this month.

7. Simply Solids block swap – starts in February but we have our instructions already.  My month is September.

There is one more I want to sign up for – the strip block swap on Flickr – but I’ve lost the link.  If anyone knows it please let me know (or maybe don’t – I might be slightly crazy to sign up for one more!)

And I also agreed to coordinate the Inchy hexagon swap this year…

So there are my goals for January.  I didn’t do very well with completing my Resolved to Sew goals from last year.  I completed one DD’s quilt top and my colours quilt top.  So I think one goal a month is a better fit for me this year.

Happy New Year to all!

Janet