Twilight… fades to black

It’s done.

In the shade apart from a splash of sunshine, where the colours are mostly, but not quite, true to life

Twilight is finished!  It has taken me a stupidly long time to complete what is, after all, not a very complicated quilt, but it has hit me in the middle of a patch of de-motivation, loss of quilting mojo and needing to get other things done. Now that it is finished, I wonder why it took me so long, and I love it and am proud of it.

In the sun. See what I mean about the colours? Not true to life; all the purple has gone brown.

Photos just don’t accurately communicate the lovely sheen on those shot cotton squares, the flashes of double-colour. The values are all wrong and the colours are off. Never mind. I know it looks better than what you see here.

(Thanks are due to the Husband, who patiently held it up at arms length all around the back yard till I found somewhere that worked, still in his work clothes after a long day and before he’d had a cup of tea, just because I wanted to catch the light. You’re a star!)

The back is nice and simple, just a dark petrol green-blue, and a simple label.

I’ll mail it off on Monday, with love and a sigh of relief!

… and night falls on yet another quilt.

Twilight 5: all bordered out

The top is done.

I didn’t have enough full strip sets to do a continuous border in the same design, but I did have enough to do all round minus the 4 corners. With the scraps and ragtag of what I’d made, I constructed the corner blocks you see, which I’m very happy with. The two colours of shot cotton that you see at top and bottom corners came from small pieces in my stash, since Spotlight no longer sell shot cotton for some totally spurious reason. They used to have a very nice selection, but no more, which I’m very upset about.

I have also bought fabric for the backing, a dark petrol green/blue with a sheen on it. Almost a shot cotton in that the light sits on it differently according to whether you see shine or shadow. I needed 3.5m and bought 4. I hope it’ll also be enough to bind the quilt as well.

I so wish the photos could capture the colours in this quilt more truthfully. It has made the selection and placing process more time consuming, but also more rewarding. It looks… nice… in the photos, but in real life it’s actually quite beautiful, even to a non-purple-lover.

There’s beauty and practicality in a simple design. It looks clean and lets the colours sing, but it’s also finished a lot faster than a quilt with loads of piecing. I’ll be sending a photo to my niece to ask her whether she’d like geometric or organic-style quilting. I’m also debating the colour of quilting thread. I’m quite tempted by magenta, or maybe turquoise… Of course, it won’t show a great deal unless you get up close and personal, but one of the bright jewel colours really appeals.

But that’s a decision for another day.

(In case you’re wondering, there’s no Parterre block this month; I’ve had too much else on. I’ll be back next month with another bright flower.)

Twilight 4: border progress

I did an awful of fiddling about over the past few days.

My original plan was doing a sort of ‘basketweave pinwheel’ effect with strip sets cut into HSTs (half-square triangles). I didn’t like how it looked, and getting things to line up was a total faff. So then I tried a diamond effect. Same. So then I abandoned the HST idea. Now, the border blocks are made up of 4 squares arranged in a basketweave, cut from strip sets graduating from light to dark. A central windmill emerges if you arrange them with the darks in the centre, and this is the version I prefer (and before you ask, yes, I did try it the other way, with the lights in the centre. Not as nice, I think).

At this point, I’m still not totally sure I have enough fabric strips for the 18 blocks I need. If necessary, I’ll create four ‘feature’ corner blocks, doing something fancy with fabrics I still have on hand. Hopefully that’ll be enough. If not, I can also create centre feature blocks for each long side.

I showed my brother (niece’s father) the progress last night during a video call, and he’s thrilled and says she’ll love it. If she doesn’t, he says, he’ll snaffle it for himself! Well, at least it’ll find a home in the family… He feels it goes with her favoured colours and her home décor.

So, onwards, ever onwards with the seemingly never-ending strip sets. Just two more sets to piece and cut to size.

Dull work, but the results are good 🙂

 

Floribunda #16: Blocks 24-28

Just two left to do.

The last pink ones:

And the last green ones:

Which means that I only have two more purple/yellow ones to make, and the blocks for the front are done.

Good. On track for the deadline. I’d better start thinking about the backing and sashing.

Back soon with the last two.

Floribunda #15: Blocks 21-23

Yes, the patchwork machine is lurching back into action.

After my recent unscheduled short break for some assorted Covid-vaccine side effects, I’m back at the machine. I treated myself to a good tidy-up on my work table (nothing too drastic, I do have ‘creative muddle’ to maintain after all) so that I could actually find a few things I needed, and the result is another 3 blocks in swift succession.

These are the start of the next row, and one (the top one) for the row below. On the same row there will also be three pink ones, but that’s for another day. I’m giving myself till mid-May to finish the front, to the end of 3rd week in May for the sandwiching and quilting, and to the end of May for assembly. The quilt has to be entered for the Mackay Show on 4th June. No pressure, then. But as we all know, I do get my skates on best when I have a deadline. I will, however, forgive myself if I miss it, since I’ll also be entering the Hatbox Quilt which didn’t go in last year because the Show was cancelled.

Watch this space for a blur of batik!

Floribunda: two thirds of the top

The Floribunda bug bit me again.

As you can see, I’ve now completed Nos. 18-20 of the Floribunda blocks and am two-thirds of the way through. Another 5 green blocks, 3 pink blocks and 2 purple blocks, and she’ll be done.

I keep tweaking the location of the individual blocks as I turn more out, since sometimes a new one just doesn’t ‘fit’ where there’s a gap. This is the latest layout, and so far, I’m quite happy with it, but naturally I’m not letting the gaps drive the colours and fabrics used in the blocks, so it won’t be the last version by any means!

Of course, after that, there’s the back and the sashing to consider. I shall have to see what’s left of both pink and green and the colours in between. What will work for sashing to complement the orange batik I had planned, and what will work with the yellow print for the back?

Only time will tell. Watch this space.

Floribunda 13: Block #17

Well, hello again. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

I’ve been furiously making masks; Queensland had a few cases appear suddenly, initially without any idea how. They’re on top of that now, but we’re still required to wear masks in public places, inside and ideally outside too. Everyone who’d put their masks away, got rid of them or had no more stock of disposable ones because of relaxed restrictions was suddenly in a bit of a pickle. I’ve made 10 in the past 3 days, so that’s the family sorted, but I’m keeping the supplies handy.

Now that the rush is over, I’ve had a chance to get on with Floribunda. I’m worried I’ll get lazy about it, let it migrate to the back burner, and then discover that I don’t have enough time to finish it before the Mackay Show admissions date. So I got another green block done. I have a pink block laid out ready to go, maybe tomorrow, or if I’m feeling energetic, perhaps tonight.

I still have to ration my sewing time; although the ankle is much improved and I’ve graduated from crutches to a cane, if I have to stand for more than a few minutes, walk too far, or let my leg dangle (as in sitting on a regular chair) the ankle balloons and throbs. So far, it’s good for an hour of sewing (or a seated tai chi class, as I discovered this morning), and then I have to elevate it. Do-able, but dull…

I got my anniversary present fabrics. The gold one is potentially for the back of Floribunda and the grey one is potentially for my most recent F2F blocks, either as backing or as filler blocks. They’re both Jocelyn Proust designs for Spotlight, and by luck they were both 40% off 🙂 The gold background fabric shows zebra finches, and the grey leaf fabric shows rose-crowned fruit doves. I really love her designs, combining simplicity and innocence with sophisticated colour choices and design. As bolt-ends in both cases, I could only get 3m of the gold and 2m of the grey, but I’ll work around that.

I hope you all had a great Easter and are ready for the seasonal change: winter for us and spring for the northern hemisphere. I’m really looking forward to cooler days and nights and fresh, crisp mornings for dog walking.

Once I’m walking again, that is.

Floribunda #12: starting the second half

And here we go, tipping over into the downhill slope.

This is Block 16. Blocks 13, 14 and 15 were shown in the previous Floribunda post as part of the total halfway layout. Each of these blocks takes about an hour. I could easily do them faster, but I’m being meticulous and tidy and measuring and trimming at every stage. It’s paying off in terms of ease when fitting things together. Alternatively, I could chain piece, or cut all the remaining blocks and start a production line, but I don’t find that enjoyable. Besides, I find that sometimes I want to change things once I take a second look, or something doesn’t work in the space I’d planned for it. You lose that flexibility if you work too fast and without stops to squint and contemplate.

I don’t have quite enough of the batik I bought for sashing since the quilt is now larger than before. That’s OK. I just need to come up with Plan B. Quite often, in my experience, B stands for Better anyway!

I’ll just keep plugging away at a gentle pace. Works for me….

Floribunda #11: halfway there

I have 50% of the blocks made. 

And now you can see how it’s going to look. Just mirror what’s in the photo. This is one of those quilts which will not photograph nicely unless it’s outside, which tends to be a bit of a thing with batiks. The patterns and colour play are subtle, and the camera tends to flatten everything out rather. It’s so much nicer in real life!

At this rate, it’ll definitely be ready in time for the Mackay Show.

I’d better start thinking about backing fabric and whether I have enough sashing fabric. No great rush, but I want to be ready when the last block is done. And the quilting?  Wavy lines, of course! Normally, I’d do vertical, but this quilt seems to be asking for horizontal. Stars under water, as it were.

Tomorrow’s the Days for Girls raffle draw. I’ll see if I can get a decent photo of the winner with her/his quilt if they’re there in person, to post here. Or, who knows, it maybe someone who’s family or a friend. That would be very special too.

My feet are telling me it’s time to stop, both the broken pedal foot and the other one in the brace that ought to be up instead of dangling under the sewing machine.

This time, just for a change, I’ll listen.

Floribunda #10: a harmless addiction

I’m talking about making these blocks.

I finished Block #11, which you saw as a layout last time.

And I made Block #12. Less blackcurrant, more raspberry.

And here’s where it’s decision time. If I make this quilt 5 x 5 blocks and join it simply with narrow sashing, it will finish at 62½ x 62½ inches plus binding, which is a nice lap quilt. If I make it 5 x 6 blocks, it will finish at 62½ x 75 inches plus binding, which is a generous lap quilt. I’ll need to make an extra 5 blocks: 2 greens, 2 pinks and a purple. I have enough fabric, so that’s not the problem.

Is a 63 inch (1.6m) square quilt big enough? Is it snuggle-under-able? Large enough to wrap up in? My niece is petite, but I don’t want it to feel stingy. It’s not a decoration, I want it to be useful and cosy… and gezellig, that wonderful Dutch word that means cosy, snug, homey, etc.

5 more blocks to make it perfect, or will it be perfect as it is? The Husband feels I should err on the side of generosity of scale, and make those extras. I’m quite happy to do so, but I also love a square quilt, so I’m torn!

What do you think?