Stamping Along

Somehow I have been able to put together
a brief post and apologise in advance for the photos,
especially of my blocks which have not been trimmed!
I lay the blame squarely at the door of my second Covid 19
shot two days ago. and it's effect on my whole body!!

So, the blocks are for my take on a quilt seen in the new book by
 Kaffe Fassett mentioned in my post
HERE

Below is a photo of the original quilt which inspired him

to make
his version below
Stamps and Bricks

I was hooked!
But as usual I decided not to follow exactly either of
the two quilts.

Here are a few of my blocks for the central portion

which all need trimming but until my body stops this incessant aching
they will stay just as they are and I've done a little cropping!

Another 14 to go if I stick with the size in the book, but I'm not
too keen on making a 74 and 1/2" square quilt, I may add another
row of blocks so the set will be 5 across by 6 down which will give a little
more length, or I may go smaller!

The only other exciting happening this week is receiving the backing
fabric for Matt's quilt - I went with the KF Hydrangea in Purple,

and I'm very happy with it.

I'm heading off to down a couple more pain meds but here's one of
the roses in the front garden - can't remember the name.

Happy Quilting

Maureen

2021 designated as My Year of The Quilt

I feel I have, for a number of reasons, not been as productive
as I should have liked over this past year with my quilt making, I am
determined that this year will be different, hence the title
of my post.

I do have a finished top now for Matt

measuring  78" x 84" I don't intend to attempt to quilt this myself.
Because of the size I couldn't photograph on my design wall so here it is under
the Japanese Maple tree in the garden.

This can count as the beginning of my dedicated quilting year.

A long awaited task has been to make a start on sorting all
my small scrap containers, fabric leftovers have been thrown into these
without any organisation whatsoever.

I have sorted one only right now
measuring 10" x 8" with 4 and 1/2" depth

so pulled and sorted neatly I have
an assortment of small and large pieces and the same for wide and narrow strips.

I have six more of this size container to sort through, next step is to decide 
whether to have a container for each colour, that's going to be tricky
with only six containers although I do have a few oblong large boxes
but they're not very deep. I'm tempted to take the easy way out 
and go with the size of the piece, small medium or large.

There were some very small pieces and I have those in what I call
my Smidgy Bits box

Apart from the above all I have had the energy to do is a stitch a few hexagons

 a little colouring

from this book

and photograph hibiscus

I have a busy week with dental and hospital appointments but I'll be setting
time aside to plan new quilts.

See you soon

Maureen

 

Phew - made it with a post after three weeks!

 I do not know what has happened to my blog postings,
can 't believe the number of posts I made prior to this year.
Methinks this could be due to the situation we all find ourselves in throughout
the world with Covid,  plus personal issues which also throw a spanner in the works 
and then of course various countries in the world
have their own crises to deal with.

All said, it's been a heck of a year for us all.
 So thank goodness for fabric and thread to keep us sane.

On the fabric and thread side things for me
have been a little slow but I now have only two more
rounds to add to Matt's quilt, latest photo below taken on a windy day
in the back garden

and hoping to have the top complete by the end of this week.
The next step will be the question of quilting. I don't see machine
quilting this with, for example, an edge to edge pattern, not good at all I
think it would ruin the simplicity of the design.

I see this as needing to be hand quilted, perhaps with a perle cotton and
big stitch style, I'm thinking keeping with the straight lines of the
fabric and possibly very four lines each round in the
direction of the lines, something like that, I'm drawing a
plan on paper. Any ideas/suggestions welcomed.

Did I mention that I was enrolled in  Colorwash 360
with
Wanda at Exuberant Color?
Am amazing course, fantastic detail on Colorwash quilts at which she is the maestro.
I decided to buy a small pack of Kaffe OOP fabrics from Wanda in readiness
for the course,  here are
three of my favourites

but what a delight to see all the fabrics in the pack!
Lots more fabric from my KF Collective stash needed to be cut into
2 and 1/2" squares, still not enough to give me the required effect
so it's on to the scrap boxes, that's gonna take an awful lot of time
so I've decided to leave this project until the New Year. I have three quilts
already on the the go and fabrics cut some time ago for more, the
occasional squirrel comes along to visit also.

I do have my blues pretty much sorted for the Colorwash,

a good range from light to dark but more needed for greater choice.
I like to check the value by editing

and I'm reasonably happy but as I said, a few extras needed.

I am as crazy about books as I am about my fabrics and have so many
waiting to be read, this is a minute stack which sits on my
bedside cabinet each one waiting in turn

presently this is the one I'm reading now

Freya Stark makes magic with her words, I'll tell you all about this
in a later post.

There is a book pictured below which has such memories
for me, this is on my list of 'unstealables'. I'd love to share
with you the reason it means so much to me, perhaps in my next post or
at the very least the one after that.

Time for me to prepare dinner but as usual I have something from
the garden to show.

Rosa Multiflora

She is a monster and will take over totally if left to her own devices,
we give her room because her scent is incredible, so sweet.

Another rambler is

Veilchenblau

again with a scent which covers the whole of the back garden.

Below is my favourite rose from David Austin.

Sharifa Asma

At the time I bought her he had stated she was his best rose,
again with an incredible scent.

That's all from me until next time, I know Thanksgiving is
almost here and I'm not sure whether most will have to miss the large family
gathering this year, but I do hope you can enjoy the day
no matter where you are and who you are with.

Take care and keep safe!

Maureen