Oops, a new quilt project

I shared this photo in my recent craft room update and said I’d fallen for the Colour Study quilt a long which is being hosted by Alison Glass - and I’m still smitten. I briefly tried to resist a new project, but sometimes the pull is just too strong.

I’m most definitely in, even though I wasn’t planning to start any more quilt projects. But I’ve done a deal with myself - and that’s to also have a push on completing the mystery block of the month quilt which has been languishing in my craft room for a good few months, while I silently sulked about not having enough of the most perfect background fabric!

But anyway, I’m over the silent sulking and will be using the fabric I’d planned to use all along on the back. The quilt sandwich is together, and it’s been basted so it’s ready for quilting - and I’ve even had a reset of my craft room to make as much space as I can around my machine.

But this post isn’t about that - and at the time of writing, while I’ve chosen fabrics for the quilt and the first few blocks, I’ve held off even cutting out those blocks, but I know it won’t be long before I start, so let’s take a look at what I’ll be up to.

The majority of the material I’m using for this quilt is from my stash. I am planning to use quite a few from the Gothic Garden fat quarter bundle I shared before, but it won’t be a halloween only fabric quilt. The guide suggesting puling a good range of colours from reds, yellows, oranges, blues, greens and purples to get started and I’ve done that. Though as part of that I’ve realised I don’t tend to go for reds or purples, which isn’t that much of a surprise to me really.

I’ve also decided to set my blocks against a dark background, and to use a selection of fabrics for that too. So with using patterns and a dark background my finished quilt will look quite different to the images I’ve shared - though there is a dark background option in the weekly instructions - and I hope I can pull it off.

I’ve even found an old notebook with enough space to help me work through the blocks, their colours and the substitutions I make. I last used the notebook back in 2015, when it had a travel planning purpose - now my evil plans are most definitely fabric themed!

I realised when I pulled these fabrics off the shelves that I very much like bright colours, and so along with the dark background I’m already calling this my ‘brights and dark’ quilt. I’ll be sharing updates as I go, though probably just once a month rather than each block - there’s twenty five of them which are released weekly, and the filler blocks, so that would be a lot of blog posts!

I’m excited to finally get started with the first few blocks - and to share how I get on, and hopefully next Spring I’ll have another quilt top complete.

Village quilts 2 & 3

It’s been a few months since I shared my first village charity quilt, and back in May I wasn’t as on track as I’d wanted to be to meet my ‘one a quarter’ plan, but it’s amazing what a difference a couple of months can make, as here I am with the second and third of this style of quilts - and I still love making them so I think there will be plenty more.

But 2 & 3…

Mum came along to the July Saturday sewing group meeting with me and at that meeting I seemed to steam through topping up my house pile to make another top. I know I need 30 houses for each quilt top, so when I think I’m close and then find out I’m not as close as I thought, I put my foot down.

Anyway at that sewing group meeting I completed the top for the second quilt - and as you’ll notice one of the houses on the second row has a more modern take on the roof shape. It’s an oops, but an acceptable oops in this style of quilt, as well, not all houses look the same anyway do they?

VILLAGE 2 QUILT TOP

I enjoyed piecing this so much that over the next few days I completed the top for my third village quilt.

VILLAGE 3 QUILT TOP

I love how they look so different, but are so clearly the same design. Some fabrics are used in both quilt tops, and some will continue to feature for a quilt or two more I’m sure, while I’ve probably used the last of some in these quilts.

I decided it would be sensible to choose two different backings for these quilts, as it made sense to batch the remaining tasks. This led me to another ‘design decision’. I was keen to use the bluey/grey and white dot fabric with the yellow flowers as a backing for the final time, but if I added two borders I wouldn’t have quite enough. I guestimated that with a single border I could use it as backing, and even better I could use that material on the front too as a border, though I wasn’t quite sure how it would work as previously I’d used the cream border.

There was only one way to find out

So both quilts were basted and quilted, then trimmed ready for binding.

VILLAGE 2 QUILTED

VILLAGE 3 QUILTED

The patterned border makes them look quite different again, doesn’t it?

I like it though, and it’s persuaded me to be bolder with some of these quilts in the future. But discipline meant that I needed to finish these quilts before I’d let myself play with any future colour schemes, and I wanted to include both of these in my donation early in September.

VILLAGE 2 FINISHED

VILLAGE 3 FINISHED

I’m pleased with both of them and love how they’re both the same but also so different - and I hope that they’ll provide a hug to someone that needs one soon.

You can see my other quilts I’ve made to donate to Project Linus - a charity whose mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children, who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, homemade, washable quilts and blankets.

Patchwork 'play' with scraps

Remember that pack of scraps I picked up at my sewing group in June that I thought I could do something with at some point? Well that ‘some point’ turned out to be sooner than I imagined, and I’ve turned the bag of pre-cut and some pre-sewn pieces into quite an array of items.

They’re now a patchwork drawstring bag and a matching piece to wrap the bread in, a pouch (obviously!), an attempt at a fabric storage basket. Plus I’ve some plans for the smaller offcuts from that to become tiny pouches, and the rest has already been cut into the required sizes ready to become future houses in this year’s charity quilts.

And just for the sheer fun of it, I’m calling this my brown bread collection - mainly because these first two items are for just that. I’m still making my sourdough and much prefer to wrap it in a cloth than plastic.

It turned out pretty well I think - and I’ve used some of the ribbon that I picked up in the Gedling scrapstore that same month too.

For the lining of the bag I used an old tea towel, which in case you’re wondering says ‘eat your greens’. It’s been in my craft room for a while, as I knew I’d use it one day even though it was long past its best as an actual tea towel. In fact I had to do some visible mending before I could use it, as I wasn’t keen for the crumbs to fall into the lining - and I like how they’ve turned out too.

The bread cloth uses the same browns as the drawstring bag but with the addition of some of the lighter pre-cut squares, and I realised that the perfect match for the backing was some of the small patterned material left over from my mystery Block of the Month quilt, which still needs to be finished (but we’ll gloss over that!)

So now my brown bread has a smart new look, and even better it’s used things I already had.

But I wasn’t done yet.

I wanted to make use of the already sewn flying geese blocks, and to me they were screaming ‘make me into a pouch’ and so I did.

I was pleased to find the beige cherry fabric in my stash was the perfect tone to complement the outer sections, and I also had a cherry red zip in my stash.

It looks like they were made to be together doesn’t it? I’m not sure what I’ll use this for yet, but I’m sure that at some point it will be obvious what its purpose is, in the meantime I’ll admire my creation and the flying geese put together by a sewer unknown.

I still had a few pieces left though and I knew that unless I made a plan now it’s likely that they would languish in my scrap pile. I’ve been thinking about making some fabric storage boxes, but hadn’t got around to it so decided to do a smaller version with these remnants.

It didn’t quite go to plan, as I misread part of the instructions and so ended up with something half the size I initially intended - and as you can see I mis-measured one of the box corners (top left) so have a pen mark on my finished item, but I’m ok with that. I expect it’ll wash off, but even if it doesn’t that’s ok as this is destined for use in the garage to hold a pile of scrap cloths with MOH uses to clean his bike.

It was a useful learning experience, and I ended up with a useful thing so that’s good too. Which left me with these final pieces.

The boxed corners from the fabric storage box (in the centre of the picture) I plan to make into tiny pouches as I’ve found these are good for holding jewellery, and even better to slip into a present, or as a nicer way of giving cash as a present. The other pieces have already been cut into the appropriate sizes for this year’s charity quilts, so you can expect to see them in a ‘house’ at some point in the future.

Now if only I was so efficient at using everything else that comes into my craft room!