Beaches and blocks

Almost the end of half term week which started with this last Sunday at Exmouth.  There is nothing like the cobalt blue of the sky there.

Amidst many dogs and their walkers was our little dog Lottie, wearing her fleece- bright but chilly out there.

A week of seeing family, catching up with friends, time at home with daughter and husband and of course sewing.  I rekindled my voile Swoon from a two years ago.  It was exactly the same time of year when I started the idea of a Swoon quilt.  It must be the vivid saturated colours that I crave at this time of year.  I enjoyed making this again, and the next block will be a little sooner.

I started a new quilt that I need to get made a little quicker: a Scrappy Trips Around the World for my nephew.  He's a boy that appreciates a little handmade love and was keen on the idea of a quilt for his birthday.  I didn't make one of these when the quilt a long first hit the quilty world, I now I started this I totally understand the popularity. So instant, so easy- everything fits together and needs minimal planning, plus what a way to get all your favourites in one quilt.  There is a little planning going on here with a rough colour palette and an idea of how many dark, how many light, how many mid tone.  I am planning the diagonals somewhat but this is relatively free and easy for me.

More beach, this time Budleigh Salterton, pebbles and a sea swirly with orange clay and cliff erosion from the recent storms.

With my honeys.

There are some ups and downs for me at the moment, c'est la vie.   I go through this from Dec/January every year but it is more marked this year.  The sea at Budleigh was loud, especially when pulling the pebbles back so strongly, the air was bracing and the cobalt blue was back again.  

Spring Swoon

So yesterday was cold but sunny and my little pot of hope started to flower...

there is a little more light in the day.  This week I have been working on Swoon block 2 and I went for spring colours, fresh light prints. I used a mix of Amy Butler Soul Blossom voiles and Anna Maria Horner Little Folks.  The cream is Kona Snow.

I also bought a big A2 industrial cutting mat from Creative Grids.  I was a little nervous buying this online, I had one very badly mailed in the past but this one arrived well packaged and is excellent quality!  I also ordered the mini ruler you can see in the pic above, perfect for adding 1/4 seam to little pieces when freezer paper piecing.  I cannot recommend Creative Grids rulers more highly, they grip the fabric so reduce slippage when you cut, easily my favourite rulers.

Today, there is no sun just rain and cold but even late in the afternoon it is light enough to take photos .  Swoon is a bit of a palette cleanser for me, all I have to do is systematically follow instructions, arrange pieces into piles, chain pieces and make assembly lines.  It all fits together like magic

Half term next week so a week off work, time for us all to get over colds, coughs and laze around.  And whilst lazing, finish a quilt for my sister, make a dress for a wedding invitation and make a few bee blocks, plus a few other things to design and plan.

Enjoy your weekend!

I Swoon, you Swoon, they Swoon, we all Swoon

At last I found a little window of time to make my first Swoon block.  All the support and inspiration you could even need is in Katy's Swoon Quilt A Long group on Flickr.  This project would never have started without it.

I have to be very disciplined to sew a big block like this successfully.  A series of assembly lines is needed, stacks of half square triangles waiting to be sewn.  I used a Frixion pen for all my lines and a walking foot for sewing the slippy sliding Little Folks voile

Pins are definitely needed with the voile.  Along the way I must have 'lost' a square here and a piece there a 100 times.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I ever imagined I would.  The block design is simple but very effective and is just what I was looking for with the Little Folks- I know many of you suggested Swoon when I asked what I should make with these fabrics.

Cutting does take ages but I am working only one block at a time so it is easily manageable.  It is a whopper, a mini quilt in itself, 24.5" x 24.5.  I am going for the full 9 blocks but slowly, slowly.

Pressing the seams open is worth the extra effort and made joining a lot easier.  The thiness of the voiles really helps and they have a lot of give, handy when I am trying to match up points.

I am actually bursting to make another but I I have promised my sister a quilt for her birthday, end of February so more Swooning will have to wait.

New Year, new projects

In 318 Patchwork Bee, Tamiko asked for Gardening blocks, a nice theme for this dark time of year, it made me think of spring this made.  This block is from the out of print book, 318 Patchwork by Kumiko Fujita.

The background print was such a good match from my vintage stash, I had to use it!  The greys are Sweetwater, the wood print is Joel Dewberry's  Aviary range and the green is a Kumiko print that I've had a while.

Maybe the gardening theme influenced me into making this little fabric pull for a private swap between Amy and myself.  The top and bottom prints are soft, washed Japanese linens and the middle two are Japanese cottons.  I am not bound to this stack although they do look rather inviting with their soft colours, I'll see what Amy's reaction is like, I am quite prepared to pull something else.  I have an interesting piecing idea for whatever I end up using, sneaky peeks coming soon...

I twisted Lula's arm just a little to spend approx £7/$10 for membership to The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery's Dessert of the Month club.  That single payment delivers 12 cross stitch PDFs to your email account and features Kawaii cute desserts that make a sampler like this lovely January truffle by Smoochee

The low price is a limited offer, ending 10th January.  I dusted off my old DMC threads, tea dyed some 14 count aida canvas and stitched a grid to get her going.

And I couldn't resist Katy's Swoon quilt a long on Flickr.   I don't need more projects, no siree but my long awaiting voile collection has finally found a pattern big enough to show its print and not needing to much cutting and stitching.  The Camille Roskelley's pattern is available as a PDF, and is a clever and economical use of fabric.  Playing with dark and light fabrics makes this pattern twist and turn. 

What really appealed is that the block looks straightforward, I can just cut the fabric needed for one block at a time and the pattern is perfect for quilt as you go as there is sashing between blocks.  I will be going slow, but there are only 9 blocks and it makes a whopping 8o inch square quilt.  I'll share my quilt as you go methods here if any of you want to do the same.  Meanwhile I am cutting my voiles and Kona snow ready for the first block.