Bougainville Nights #7: all but the binding

Things are about to get busy round here.

So I thought I’d round off BougieNights without getting all the way to the end. I’ll be binding it in the same dark blue as the back, effectively making the binding all but invisible, so it doesn’t really deserve a post of its own. But it’s now time to reveal the ‘secret quilt’ that’s been materialising on the back from the six blocks that didn’t get used on the front. So without further ado, tah-daaah!

That small patch at far centre right is the label. A few years ago a craft magazine had some quilt label freebies, and this was one of them. At this distance of time I can’t remember which magazine it was, but I thought the patch was pretty enough to hang onto, on the basis that one day I’d have a quilt that demanded it. And here we are.

So, credit where it’s due. These blocks are the work of Lynn Hutton, Sandra Meynet, Sue Brown, Moira McSpadden, Susan Nixon, Gun Adrian, Esther Frenzel, Claire Hupin, and me. They are the outcome of my turn in the second Footsquare Freestyle (F²F²) block swap, which was enjoyable enough for us to have gone around again for a third time. There’ll almost certainly be a fourth session starting next year, in case you’re interested.

I have some sewing to do for Bee, Myself and I on Saturday. As we’re going away, I need to prepare the post in advance, and by posting about BougieNights early, I’ve bought myself some time to do that.

And let us not forget packing for the trip. Road trip! Road trip! Not excited at all, noooooo….

 

BougieNights #5: leaping ahead

Last time we looked at Bougainville Nights, it was just half quilted.

Just look at it now!  All the blocks are quilted, I’ve cut all the sashing strips, and have made a good run up at the joining. So, in case you were wondering, the sashing on the front is dark inky blue, and the sashing on the back is hot pinks and oranges. Most of the back is dark blue, but there is a chevron of blocks on the back too, so this will effectively be a double-sided quilt. Not large, but versatile. I’ll do a reveal of the back once the blocks are all together.

Another couple of days will see all the sashing in place and the blocks all joined up. I’m thinking a dark blue binding, but I might sneak in a colourful corner or two – it depends if I have enough blue of the right colour left over. Good to think that I’m getting closer to finishing this quilt composed of my F²F² blocks.

Better late than never…. 

F²F³: last ones, and worth the wait!

A surprise squishy arrived the other day.

I wasn’t really expecting anything, so it came as a lovely surprise to realise that it was from Sue of From the Magpie’s Nest, and it was my last F²F³ blocks of the F2F 2018/19 session. Poor Sue has been suffering from an injured shoulder which is taking ages to heal and is cramping her sewing style dreadfully, so I’m very grateful that she made the effort on my behalf.

So, without further ado, here they are:

I love them all, but the last one really tickled me! Sue knows I live in the tropics of North Queensland, Australia, and have just moved to a new and smaller house, so she’s created me a tiny tropical cottage (the sort of thing they call a chattel house in Barbados) with a palm tree outside. Even better, the dark strip at the top is the purple version of a Kaffe Fassett design called Aboriginal Spots. It’s a perfect fit 🙂  I have to decide whether to integrate this into the quilt, or make a special cushion cover out of it, but that will have to wait until I can lay out the blocks out on the design wall and can decide on a layout.

So it’s into the Amethyst & Slate project basket for now.

 

F²F³: Last but one…

Better late than never, I say…

By which I mean that I finally got round to pressing and photographing these lovelies. They’ve been sitting on my work table at the old house, and I kept forgetting to do it when I was over there packing boxes.

They were made for me by Nanette for my F²F³ month, and are the last but one set. I was finally reminded by poor Nanette’s latest blog post, in which she shows her ScrapHappy work, but also tells us that she’s had dengue fever, very nasty, very tiring and you feel just horrible. So everyone please send Nanette lots of comforting, healing and positive thoughts.

She attached little notes to two of them to explain where the block design came from, and if you click on the photos you can read what she’s written. The third one, without a note, is Anvil, one of her favourite blocks.  I really love all three of them, the colours are beautiful and delicate, and they will work so well with all the others.

Thank you, Nanette, and may you recover quickly and return to health and full creativity very soon.

And now for something completely different

Well, not THAT different. It’s a quilt, after all.

But you haven’t seen this one before. I’m calling it Bougainville Nights (or BougieNights for short). It’s composed of the blocks I received from the previous session of F2F, not the one that finished last month but the one before.

This is the initial layout for the front of the quilt. It’ll probably change again a couple of times, but this seems to be fairly balanced. If you have suggestions for improving the layout, let me know what you think.

Some of the blocks I received are not shown here. I’ll still be using them all, but six are going on the back, and one is going to make the front of a cushion. The ones not shown are either on light backgrounds, or they contain fairly large amounts of yellow or pale orange or pale pink, which read too light and don’t work with the other blocks. They’re all beautiful, but they don’t fit in this version of the front. For the back, I’ll probably have a mainly dark blue background, with these blocks arranged in a left to right pointing chevron. The cushion cover block is gorgeous, but has lots of bright yellow in it which stands out very strongly if used on the front, so I’m going to border it with more yellow to make a feature of it. I’ll use dark blue joining strips and binding it in hot pink and orange. Should be nice and bright!

I have no idea how much time I’ll be able to spend on this over the coming weeks. But it’s been agitating to get out of my head and onto the design wall, so I just had to get that done so the quilt would shut up! I have a feeling my sewing room is going to be fairly low on the priority list in the new house, simply because it’s not ‘necessary’. So I’ll just have to take advantage of what I have now for as long as possible. This’ll be another QAYG project, and each block is small enough to quilt in a short time. I’ll be grabbing half hours here and there, and slowly, it’ll get done.

And now, it’s time to get up and get going. Things to do, boxes to pack.

 

F²F³: three more beauties

I got another squishy this morning 🙂

The package was from Moira, who has sent me three really beautiful blocks for my amethyst and slate colour scheme. Aren’t they lovely? And what gorgeous fabrics and perfect colours. I particularly love the white-on-white pineapple print, perfect for its new tropical setting!

Click on any image to enlarge.

She also sent me a piece of wonderful Kaffe Fassett fabric as a bonus. I love this so much that I’m going to save it for a garment or accessory of some sort, so I can see and enjoy it all the time!

Two more sets of blocks to come and two more of my own to make, and I’ll have the full set. Then, of course, it’ll be time to start planning the quilt. I think this lovely colour scheme is going to be perfect for a quilt for one of our new bedrooms. Hmm… I’ve never tried wool batting, but it would be lovely and cosy for those cooler nights.

And now, back to my packing list!

F²F³: nearly over for another year

And now for something completely different.

February is a short month, and with only one day of it left, I’m doing the final round-up of F²F³, the third round of F²F, a little early. Once again, it’s been a fun block swap with some really beautiful work from everyone. My ‘amethyst and slate’ blocks are destined to become a winter quilt for my own bed (well, OK, as much winter as we ever get here in the tropics). I have a few more still to come in, and I’ll show them as they arrive.

We’ll certainly do this again, and if you’d like to join in next time, be sure and let me know. I’ll be giving advance notice, so all you have to do is drop me an email or comment on the post when it comes out. If you want to know what it’s all about, have a look here.

Meanwhile, I’m sure many of you are already tired of my home renovations and ready for more quilty loveliness. So without further ado, here are Esther’s blocks, which arrived in the mail yesterday. Aren’t they gorgeous? She’s made 4 because she was worried that one of them wasn’t quite right. Thing is, I can’t tell which one that might have been, they’re all so lovely!

I’ll head over and add these to the F2F 2018/19 Gallery, so if you haven’t seen all the blocks before, click on the link and take a look, there’s some impressive work there.

We’ll be back with another session later in the year 🙂