Squishy 3

This morning, the postie brought me another one 🙂

One of the chief charms of the F²F block swap is that when it’s your month, the exciting envelopes and packages just keep coming.  These beauties are from Claire in France, and I really love the fabrics she’s chosen, and the soft colours. I’m the last one on the list, and after 8 months of sending blocks out to other people, it’s just lovely receiving them.

This quilt is going to be lovely. The soft shades of grey and lilac are going to make for a very tranquil and soothing effect. I’ve already started thinking about how it might be quilted.

I really must get on and make a few more blocks for myself!

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F²F³: In the home stretch

It’s February, so it must be my turn to receive F²F³ blocks 🙂

We’ve had a great session this time round, and every year we do this block swap I see blocks new to me, skills improved and people falling in love with colours they’d never normally use, in the pursuit of creating three blocks each for all the participants. February concludes this third iteration of the block swap, and yes, I’ll probably be doing it again. It’s too much fun to stop! The start and end date depend on how many participants sign up; the minimum is probably 9 (including me) because that produces a useful final total of blocks, but we can do it with more. If you’re new to F²F (Footsquare Freestyle), hop over to the blogsite I set up for it and take a look at how it works as well as the galleries for this and previous sessions. And if you’d like to join in next time, either drop me an email using the details on the Contact Me page on this blog or leave a comment.

I’ve already received the first three blocks; these beauties were sent to me by Lynn of Tialys. The colour isn’t very accurate, I’m afraid; what looks red is actually a beautiful plum/burgundy, and the background of the bottom block is more lilac than pink. I’m not getting very good natural light just now with all the rain and dark clouds north Queensland is experiencing, and this colour change is an artefact of artificial light.

Below, you’ll also see my first block for myself, just to give F²F participants an idea if you’re looking for inspiration or have yet to go shopping for fabrics 🙂 It’s called Box Kite, and was designed by Angela Pingel, from her book Modern Blocks by C&T Publishing, and I really like it.

I’ll also be making myself a Circle of Geese block like Lynn’s but in a very different colour scheme. Lynn obviously knows me very well to choose that one to make for me, as it’s another one of my favourites!

I’ve decided to make blocks in both light and dark shades of the colours I’ve selected (but not real brights), because I know it can be hard to decide what someone means by a colour description when you’re trying to choose fabrics. That way, there can be a scattering of both, and no ‘wrong’ or ‘right’.

Right, on with the foundation paper piecing and never mind the rain hammering at the windows!

F2F3: January round-up

January was Kathy’s month in F²F³.

Her colours were sky blue, a sort of cornflower blue, and gray, from silvery gray to as dark as charcoal, with white as the neutral.

She said: “I don’t see having a dash of other colors in a print being an issue, but would prefer they be more on the cool side. I am seeing the sky blue, grays and white being the main focus with smaller bits of the darker blue. I made a Pinterest board with some photos, here’s the link: https://pin.it/5niixxhyxvfpb3“.

If you want to see all the finished blocks, go to the F²F 2018 gallery here. F²F reference and finished block images are maintained on a separate blog from Tall Tales From Chiconia, due to their image-heavy nature, and the home page is here, if you want to bookmark it or follow it. The galleries are a useful library of colour and block designs, and the previous F²F session is also stored there.

And finally, we’re into the home stretch. February is the last month of this series, and all the blocks are for meeeeee! I’ve chose a palette of soft greys and lilacs: amethyst and slate. The effect I hope to achieve is a soft vintage look, nothing very bright or strong. You can see my colour references at the bottom of the Members/ Colours page here.

Note to all participants: although I’m moving house halfway through the month, I’m requesting that you send the blocks to my current address; we aren’t moving right away as lots of renovation is needed first, and in any case I’ll have mail forwarding in place. If you’ve already changed my address details and want the old address, email me. If you’ve already sent it to the new address, don’t worry, the current owners will put it aside for me till settlement day.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what you all come up with 🙂

Looking back, looking forward

It’s traditional, isn’t it?

We bloggers tend to do a retrospective post at the end of the year, summarising what we’ve made or achieved in the past year. I tend not to do this so much any more; it began to feel like I was being a bit boastful, or a bit competitive. I didn’t want to feel disappointed with myself because I hadn’t made as many quilts, or garments, or… (fill in creative sewing activity here) as Blogger X. We all have different amounts of time, motivation, energy, money, fabric or space, and we each make according to our resources. Last year, I posted about how many metres of thread I’d used. That seemed like a fun and different thing to do, and didn’t create any direct comparison benchmarks.

This year, I kept my thread reels again. I’m purposely not looking at last year’s sum-up to see how much I used in 2017. Suffice to say that in 2018 I used 5km (3.1 miles) of thread. Is that a lot? I don’t know, but it’s a nice round figure 🙂

I want to thank everyone who’s participated in making quilts to benefit Ovarian Cancer Australia, everyone who’s joined in with ScrapHappy to make something lovely or useful from unpromising scraps, and everyone who’s joined in the Footsquare Freestyle (F²F) block swap collective to help friends create a beautiful quilt in their chosen colours. I want to thank friends and family who have given me an opportunity, a challenge and great motivation to make them a thing of beauty and a quilt to love, made especially for them. Thank you for coming along on my travels in the caravan and on the motorbike, for enjoying my weird, rampant and bug-ridden garden, and for listening when I indulged in a good rant about issues that set me alight. Let’s do it all again this year! I especially want to thank the Husband for enabling my creative habits, enjoying what I write and taking the trouble to find out what on earth I’m talking about when I speak Quilt.

Have a great 2019, y’all. Be kind to each other, and share pretty things. See you soon in Chiconia. 

Hugs,

F²F³: December round-up

December was Esther’s month in F²F³.

Esther had a lovely and unusual colour palette for her, based on a photo of the plants and pots in her garden. There were shades of soft green, blue and grey to play with, lots of fun and a total change from the brights of the month before.

She made a couple of her own blocks and got them up in the gallery in time to give the rest of us an idea of what she was thinking, always helpful when faced with colours and combinations you wouldn’t have thought of yourself!

Because of Christmas, we’ve all been really busy, and I was amazed and delighted when we ALL finished on time 🙂  Congratulations, all of you! By the day after Christmas, all photos were up, a stellar achievement.

January is Kathy’s month. Here’s what she said about her colours:

My colors are sky blue, a sort of cornflower blue, and gray: from silvery gray to as dark as charcoal, with white as my neutral.  I don’t see having a dash of other colors in a print being an issue, but would prefer they be more on the cool side. I am seeing the sky blue, grays and white being the main focus with smaller bits of the darker blue.    I made a Pinterest board with some photos, here’s the link:
https://pin.it/5niixxhyxvfpb3

I think I’m going to enjoy working on this one, I ♥ this cool palette of greys and blues!

If you want to see all the finished blocks, go to the F²F 2018 gallery here, and if you want to check out all the colour palettes, go to the Members/ Colours page here. F²F reference and finished block images are now maintained on a separate blog due to their image-heavy nature, and the home page is here, if you want to bookmark it or follow it. The galleries are a useful library of colour and block designs, and the previous session is also stored there.

F²F³ has been great fun so far. I wish everyone a great start to 2019 and the final two sets of blocks to complete it!

F²F³: November round-up

November was Robin’s month in F²F³.

Robin’s colour palette was cerise and a rich royal blue with orange on a white background, and she provided a photo of a camellia in a blue vase with a mandarine for reference.

It was also great that she made one of her own blocks ahead of schedule for the gallery, so the rest of us could see what she was thinking, and she gave us quite a lot of freedom about how muted or intense the colours could be.

This month has been a busy one, and we didn’t all quite manage the stellar delivery performance of last month, when we finished ahead of schedule. There are still three sets of blocks to go out, and I still need the photos of these for the gallery. I’m sure it’ll all be done very soon, and I’ll load the images into the gallery as soon as I get them.

November is Esther’s month. She’s chosen a variety of soft shades of green and grey, based on a photo of plants and their pots in her garden. If you click on the Members/Colours page link given below, you can see what this slightly vague description looks like, and it’s a very pretty palette. I sincerely hope I’ll be able to find suitable fabrics, as the shops are currently full of Christmas-themed prints and colourways!

If you want to see all the finished blocks, go to the F²F 2018 gallery here, and if you want to check out all the colour palettes, go to the Members/ Colours page here. F²F reference and finished block images are now maintained on a separate blog due to their image-heavy nature, and the home page is here, if you want to bookmark it or follow it. The galleries are a useful library of colour and block designs, and the previous session is also stored there.

Now, let’s see what I have by way of muted greens…

F²F³: August roundup

August was Claire’s month in F²F³.

What fun it was to work with her colour palette of black, grey and turquoise 🙂 It made for bright, graphic, fresh blocks, and I hope she’ll hurry up and make her quilt from them, because I’m dying to see how they finish up! I know I was ready well ahead of most of you on account of having a very busy month, but I did slightly regret that once I’d seem some of the other blocks

September is Nanette’s month, and she has given us a pretty open colour brief. Any shade of blue from baby to dark, including shades of aqua and teal, plus pale blush pink. One important point to note: she has requested NO WHITE OR CREAM BACKGROUNDS, please. If you need contrast please use light blue or blush pink.

If you want to see the finished blocks, go to the F²F 2018 gallery here, and if you want to check out the colour palettes, go to the Members/ Colours page here. F²F reference and finished block images are now maintained on a separate blog due to their image-heavy nature, and the home page is here, if you want to bookmark it or follow it. The galleries are a useful library of colour and block designs, and the previous session is also stored there.

I’m looking forward to getting stuck in, but first, I have to go shopping for a bit of blush…