Blue three

In case you fondly imagined I was taking a rest from the Blue quilt…

All blocks are now completed, I’ve finalised the layout, and eight blocks in the top two rows are quilted. The cross hatching is on a 3 inch square grid, which after some testing I found was the perfect balance between the need to secure the layers and keeping the feel of the block flexible and soft after quilting. It’s also a nice easy thing to mark up and I have a good production line going 🙂

I still haven’t absolutely finalised the colour of the front sashing for this quilt, but I have time to think about that. I’m quite liking the idea of a pale beige/cream, but am also debating using one of the brighter pale blues, as I don’t want the blocks to blend into the sashing too much.

This is going to be a nice easy quilt to assemble: three rows with a 6-square and 4-square panel in each, so only two medium-long seams and no very long ones.

Right, time to go and cut more backing squares.

Bee, Myself and I #15

In the home stretch now…

Originally, my plan was for 36 of these lovely hatbox blocks, but I’ve discovered the dratted moths have been at my ‘side and floor’ fabric pieces in a big way, and I have no more fabric to replace them. The quilt will now finish at 30 blocks, 5 across and 6 down. It’s not a bad size, 50 x 60 inches, a good lap quilt or something lovely to hang on the wall. I’ll still have two more to show, next month. Without further ado, then, here are Hatbox blocks 28, 29 and 30.

Before you wonder why I still have two to do, I’ve edited two of them out because I’m not much in love with them any more, at least as part of this series. They were fairly early ones, hatboxes 11 and 12. I’m not sure what I want to do with them, so if anyone out there would like them, let me know – it’s first come, first served. I’ll mail them internationally if necessary. If I get no takers they may evolve into a cushion cover, or perhaps I’ll donate them to someone else’s charity quilt work.

Lynn at Tialys is also making a hatbox quilt wall hanging, but started later and has fewer to make, so she’s finished her blocks and is on to the quilting part. Click through to her blog to have a look at hers, they’re all gorgeous, being made from Liberty fabrics. She’s in a later timezone than I am, so maybe wait a little before you go over there to give her time to get her post up.

Bee, Myself and I is a forum for ‘selfish sewing’; any stitchery which is purely for pleasure and not for anyone else. The original concept belongs to Carla of Granny Maud’s Girl. To find out more, you can click through on either her blog link, or using the button a fair way down in the left hand column.

One more month of block making to go, and then it’ll be time to start quilting and assembling. I’m thinking this’ll be at least partially hand quilted throughout, so it’s going to be a fair while before I’m done 🙂

 

 

Blue two

More blocks, the light ones this time…

I’m happy with how this is turning out, and best of all, the Husband approves also. Not too girly, not too boring (and if we’re strictly honest, quite pleased that I didn’t need to buy a whole load of fabric for it!). Because it’s scrap-dense, these simple blocks can be quite time-consuming to put together, but I’m really enjoying the discipline imposed by this colour scheme. The blues are all at the cool end of the range, and the white, grey, sand and taupe are beautifully fresh. I have to resist the temptation to include fabrics I love which are simply the wrong colour, and actually, I really love the outcome!

4 more blocks to go and the piecing will be done. Quilting’s going to be simple and not too dense. It’s a bunk quilt and needs to be fairly supple, so dense quilting would stiffen it too much. I’m still considering what would be best. It needs to complement the simplicity of the design, hold the layers together and be quick to achieve (I’m impatient to start my own bunk quilt!).

Once the blocks are done, I’ll sandwich a few blocks and have a think…

 

 

L’heure bleue

The Blue Hour is one of my favourite times of day.

It’s that time between twilight and full night when the sun is below the horizon and the world is coloured a soft shade of deep blue and other colours start to leach away. It’s a time when I often find myself in my sewing room, pottering about; it’s not long enough to start anything big before I have to go to the kitchen to make dinner, but it’s too good to waste doing nothing.

I’ve at last begun, appropriately enough, a mostly blue and white quilt for the Husband’s bunk in Miz Lizzie. So far, all the blocks are from my sorted scraps and smaller stash pieces, but I suspect I’ll need some more fabric soon, some bits of dark blue.

Also included in the line up are pieces from Granny Maud’s Girl; she sent me leftovers from the quilt she made for her father from his old shirts, and I’ve made entertaining use of the patches featuring pockets! I’m getting along nicely, a couple of blocks here, a couple more there, and making good use of my Blue Hour time. This early layout is most of the dark centres with light out-sides. Coming soon are the light centres with dark outsides…

And because of course all colour has a sound track, I leave you with Acker Bilk and the marvellously and appropriately named Bent Fabric, playing The Blue Hour.

What do you do with your Blue Hour?

Colour as sound

Sometimes, Nature springs something that stops you in your tracks.

This is what stopped me in mine yesterday. Do click on the photo to get a larger image, it’s worth it! Can you believe those colours, those clouds? I have a very mild case of synaesthesia, and I could hear those colours. Think Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary (formerly attributed to Henry Purcell).

You’d stop seeing it if it was like this every day, but sometimes, we’re reminded how amazing this planet is…

A sneaky Teal

A while ago, I volunteered to test a pattern for Teresa of Sewn Up – TeresaDownUnder.

It was a new design called Win My Heart, a lovely pieced designs with hearts and triangles. I made one change to the pattern, which was adding that strip of floral down the centre to make the quilt just a little wider. I’ve been working on it in the background to everything over the past few months, and I’ve finally finished quilting it. I’m going to donate it to Ovarian Cancer Australia because, of course, I managed to get teal into the name and the fabrics I chose. As well as the teal hearts on the front and the gorgeous teal, pink, peach and yellow floral pattern, it has a pale pink backing and a binding in mostly brighter pink. Despite all that, it’s not too terribly girly.

This is Gonna Teal Your Heart Away.  I made some errors in my fabric choices and when I was assembling and quilting it, so it’s not by any means perfect (or even completely straight!), and doesn’t really do justice to the beauty and clarity of the pattern, but Ovarian Cancer Australia say they’ll be delighted to have it anyway, either as a gift to someone in need, or as a comforting snuggle quilt for someone hearing bad news in their counselling centre.

As always, the label on the back gives credit where it’s due: in this case, to Teresa as the designer as well as me as the stitcher. It also pays tribute to all those women past and present who have suffered from Ovarian Cancer, and by their suffering have contributed to improvements in knowledge and treatment of this silent killer.

Do go and take a look at Teresa’s pattern, which shows not only her quilt but examples of those made by her pattern testers. It’s a beautiful and versatile pattern, and I’m glad and privileged to have been part of the process, especially as it’s made such a pretty quilt for OCA.

That’s it teal-wise for a while. My airmail fabric for ST&D has arrived, but I have an appointment to quilt Sea Glass for my SIL before I touch any of that 🙂

 

A pink letter day

Or more accurately, a pink number day.

Yesterday, after a couple of medical appointments earlier this week, I was fully discharged as an oncology patient. I’m officially cancer-free after 5 years. I loved how the discharge form was printed on pink paper – I got my pink slip!* 🙂

We went out for a meal to celebrate, and today I will ceremonially return the last of my oral chemotherapy drugs to the pharmacy. There will still be annual checkups, but that’s the last of the treatment.

You might say, I’m feeling ‘in the pink’…

 

*For non-Aussies, a pink slip can be either a vehicle inspection paper to confirm your car is OK, or a termination notice at work. Either one works in this context…