June Kona Solids

The inspiration photo that came with the June solids for my Sew Sisters solids of the month is certainly appropriate for wedding season.

Pretty bridal bouquet.

Unfortunately I hate these colours. Especially together. These are my anti-colours. Give me four shades of grey, or blues, or greens or pretty much anything besides these soft, girly colours. Barf.

Left to right: Petunia, Oyster, Honey Dew, Peony

In particular I hate the sickly sweet Honey Dew. Yuck. I may never use these colours, but you never know! Jenn at Quarter Inch from the Edge does these awesome solid colour strip quilts so maybe they will work in one of those quilts one day. 

Here's hoping for a turquoise-y July!

Lynn

Tardis Insanity

My husband and I love to watch TV shows together. He introduces me to so many shows I would never watch...Firefly, for example, or Game of Thrones...and we get to be geeky together. This was definitely the case for Doctor Who, a show I've heard about forever but never had any interest in watching.

Then my hubby brought home season one (of the reboot, not the 1960s version) and we began our marathon of Doctor Who. We've watched right up the present except for the two specials (Whovians will understand what I mean) and we're hooked.

To thank the guy who let us borrow his DVDs (a friend of my husband's from work) I came up with the idea of making him a Tardis pillow. I found one by Trillium Designs that was free on Craftsy. She made the most incredible paper pieced Doctor Who quilt for her son. It is huge and a ridiculous amount of work. I thought I could do one block as a pillow.

Here is that block.

Each one of those letters and numbers corresponds to a teeny tiny piece of fabric.

It should end up looking something like this. This was Trillium Designs' block in her son's quilt. Genius.

I have the fabric picked (Kona Navy and Kona Prussian for the Tardis, White Architextures Sketch fabric for the windows, some scraps of Reunion for the sign, some Kona Black and a scrap of yellow from Madrona Road).

100000000 pieces. Ack.

I don't know what I'm thinking. I don't like paper piecing nor am I particularly good at it. But if I can pull it off won't it be AMAZING?

My husband approved all my fabric choices except one. We had a disagreement about the background fabric. I thought it should be super crazy and colourful like the space time clouds that The Doctor is always flying through but hubby wasn't sure. He thought about it for a bit and then deferred to my choice.

Doesn't this just scream Space/Time cloud to you?

Wish me luck. I figure I'll do it a bit at a time. I need to have it done by the second week of August. Ummm, here's hoping?

Lynn

WIP Wednesday: Greys and Rainbows

As my baby daughter gets older I seem to be getting less time to sew. I am hoping that when my eldest daughter is in summer camp on various weeks this summer I might get some more sewing time in because I need it!

I have been working away on the two grey quilts I am making for a friend who has two little boys, 1 and 3. I don't like doing quilt math if I can avoid it, so I went with this cheat:

Plus blocks made up of 3.5" squares and then into nine-patch blocks

I took one of my daughter's sheets from her double bed, laid it out on my queen-sized bed and then put the blocks loosely on top to see what size I needed. It turned out I needed six more to get to the size I want. And I avoided some math!

The plus blocks all done. I need to do the sashing but I'm running low on Kona White, which I did have a bolt of but have already used most of to do other quilts.

On the more colourful side (which is good because all grey all the time isn't the most cheerful, even though I love the fabrics I chose) I have been cutting out the pieces for my Aviatrix Medallion quilt. IT IS TAKING FOREVER. It takes at least 30 minutes per colour to cut out all the tiny pieces and carefully place them in the appropriately marked bag. I FINALLY finished the Violet group (five colours) and have three more colour groups to go. I have my greys cut out but still need to cut out my background greys and my whites. Holy cow. I could take three months just cutting this thing out!

The Violet group. This is the set with Template 1.

I assure you, this quilt is not for the faint of heart. And quilty friend C is ahead of me in cutting and warned me about the 288 tiny Template 3 pieces that still need to be cut. What am I thinking??

Linking up with Freshly Pieced's Work in Progress Wednesdays (She's also working on the Aviatrix Medallion!)

Lynn

Blueberry Orange Parfait: A Finished Quilt

I am a huge fan of many of the quilt patterns designed by Camille Roskelley of Thimble Blossoms, and when I saw her Puddle Jumping pattern I was drawn to it instantly. I didn't think I would be making one anytime soon as her quilts tend to be huge, but I bought the pattern on sale and filed it away in my "Make One Day" file in my head. Then I saw a pin on Pinterest of a four block Puddle Jumping quilt that someone had made as a baby quilt. That got my mind turning. And so when our neighbours let us know that they are expecting a little boy this August I knew just which pattern to pull out!

I got all of the fabric from my stash. I have really been in a navy mood lately and I'm not sure how but this orange and navy combination was screaming out at me. Ever have that happen to you?

There is some Violet Craft Flight in Navy, some Riley Blake Navy Chevrons, some Basketweave in Tangerine, a little Lizzy House Jewels in orange, Orange Pez and some Art Gallery Squared Elements in Blueberry (which I also used for the binding). There is also lots and lots of Kona White.

I seriously overdid it on Instagram with this one but I LOVE this quilt. I love the pattern, the colours, the non-traditional "baby"look. I am going to be sad to see this one go!

Here is Blueberry Orange Parfait, made with six blocks instead of 12. Can't you see a sweet new summer baby boy on this lovely modern quilt?

Front

Loose meandering stipple with some extra loops. I need to expand my FMQ repertoire!

Back

I used one stripe of 3.5" squares and lots of white for the back. I like how striking it is (and I hope the white washes well for baby!)

Lynn

Linking up with Amanda of Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday!