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 🙂

 

 

 

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 🙂

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: September round-up

September was Nanette’s month in F²F³.

Nanette’s colour palette of any shade of blue paired with blush pink presented an unexpected challenge for some of us. Nanette didn’t want white for her blocks, and it’s surprisingly hard to find blue prints without at least moderate amounts of white. I think we’ve managed OK though, and Nanette has some of the appliqué and basket blocks she specifically requested. All blocks bar one set are on their way already; the missing set are AWOL because their maker has pneumonia and needs to rest, and quite right too.

October is Moira’s month, and she has chosen a soft and neutral palette: she would like blocks featuring various shades of browns – assorted tans, golden browns and dark browns. She’s hoping to match a fabric print featuring beautiful barred feathers, with eggs in a light grey blue as her accent colour in the blocks. Background is to be cream, and she’d like a variety of cream tonal fabrics if possible. I shall go and have a rummage, and if I can’t find what I need, I’ll simply have to go shopping. Oh dear, what a hardship…

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.

Time to dive into my fabric cupboard for a spot of cream with my coffee and chocolate…

F²F³: FootSquare Freestyle June roundup

It’s time for a round up of the first month of this third series of F²F.

June is Lynn’s month, and all blocks are away safely – she’s even received most of them already, which is good going, considering some were coming from Australia and the US to France! I hope we can maintain this standard throughout the entire 9 months of the series, although I suspect things may slip a bit around Christmas. Lynn had a lovely colour palette to start us all off: shades of grey, beige and vintage rose.

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 is now maintained on a separate blog due to its 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.

July is Sue’s month, and she has chosen a classic palette of blue and white, from pale through to indigo. I’ve started her blocks already, and I’m having a whole lot of fun!

See you same time next month.

Staying cool with Lime & Soda

In case you were wondering, this is not a recipe post…

Mackay is in the tropics. Our climate is hot, ranging from pleasantly sunny to raging, stinging heat with the force of a hammer. Our old wooden house requires no heating and air conditioning is a must. In the winter, the sun is the only way of taking the edge off any mild chill inside a house designed to stay cool. To this end, the house was designed with a sun porch running along the north side of the house, following the track of the winter sun from east to west. It gets sun all day long. Our living room has 4 continuous french windows which open onto this sun porch, but they’re never open, despite the fact that it would increase the space, warm the room on cooler days and increase air circulation. This is because the sun porch gets too darn hot; the aircon compressor lives in there, and the louvre windows have no fly screens so they stay closed, and the screen door onto the porch lets in the hot air.

You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this?

The porch roof slopes down so the curtain needs to be higher on one side than the other. I shall fill the gaps with sashing fabric.

Curtains. If I screen off the area of the porch where the compressor lives with a heavy curtain, keep the louvres closed and the bamboo blinds down, and have another curtain for the screen door, I can open the french windows and air condition the sun porch too on hot days and allow warm air into the main room on cooler days. And the Lime & Soda bit? That’s the clever name my friend Carla came up with, back when I was going to make a quilt from these blocks, which were made as part of the first FootSquare Freestyle (F²F) block swap.

Sashing fabric for between the curtain blocks. The flowers are about 2 inches across

NYB tablecloth, which I will edge with the sashing fabric, and three cushion fronts

Instead, I shall make a heavy curtain from 28 of the F²F blocks, and for the table and chairs in the porch a tablecloth and cushions from the four gorgeous New York Beauty blocks made by Avis and the final  three blocks.

The screen door curtain will probably come out of the numerous black, white, grey and lime green scraps I was hoarding with these blocks.

That leaves just one problem. How to stop the barking geckos leaving their pellets of poo all over everything.

Up to now, they’ve had it all their own way in there, and that’s going to stop.

Still, the little poops are black and white, so at least they’ll blend in with the colour scheme.

Ah, life in the tropics…

Curtain down: Foot²Freestyle draws to a close

For the past 21 months, an unusual swap bee has been quietly unfolding.

It hasn’t been well known or publicised at all, but it has produced some extraordinary creativity, exciting use of colour, and inspiration to try our hands at something a bit different. Foot²Freestyle, or F²F as it has been familiarly known, required its members to produce three foot² (12×12 inch) blocks each month, in the recipient’s designated colours, but in any design, hence the Freestyle. Each member took it in turn to receive the month’s blocks, and while the rest of us could see and enjoy the blocks we were making in the F²F and then the F²F² galleries, the recipient stayed away, to enjoy the surprise when opening her envelopes. After the first 12 months, there was sufficient interest in the process to go again, with some new and some existing members from the first round.

The result is a pair of block galleries of great beauty and variety, a source of inspiration and ideas for future quilts for all of us. If you haven’t been following F²F up to this point, I encourage you to go and take a look, using the links in the previous paragraph and scrolling down month by month to see what everyone made. The galleries also show some finished quilts, demonstrating the amazing results a collaboration of creativity can produce. I also hope that members who complete their quilts at some future stage will let me have photos so that they can be added to the roll of honour.

To all those who have participated in either or both sessions, Sue and I as the originators of this block swap would like to extend our thanks and very best wishes for the future. We have greatly enjoyed working with you all, and hope that we will have an opportunity to renew that pleasure at some future stage.

Until we meet again around the F²F campfire, happy sewing, may your creative juices never run low, and see you on the other side of several fun new projects!

 

Please note that I am on the road most of 2 and 3 March, and may not be able to respond promptly to your comments or messages. I will do my best to catch up quickly!

F²F² January round up

Slowly we are coming to the end of F²F².

There’s a really beautiful array of blocks for Esther’s magenta/ green/cream colour choice in the gallery. It’s an unusual and sophisticated combination of shades and works brilliantly, so I think the finished quilt is going to be outstanding. Esther has not made her own blocks for this yet, I suspect she’s waiting to see all the others before she decides, and I believe they’re all in now.

February is Claire’s month. She’s been the first to mail her blocks almost every month, they’ve all been beautiful, and she’s waited patiently for her turn. Finally, it’s time! She’s chosen a bright and happy combination of blue, green and orange, based on what is for me a very familiar image – Australian rainbow lorikeets 🙂

As you’ll remember, this month is the last of the second F²F series – Sue and I are taking a break to concentrate on other things. If there’s anyone who’d like to carry on and take up the reins of organising and maintaining this block swap, just leave a comment or contact me by email. We may bring it back at some future stage, as it has been both fun and helpful in encouraging inexperienced quilters to try new ideas, blocks and processes. I’ve learned a lot, and have made new friends I’d never have met without it.

To any F²F-ers out there who are looking at their blocks and thinking about what to make, do make a start! I’m still hoping to put a finished quilt for all our members in the gallery one day… 

F²F² January progress report

I know, I know, I’m very late with the report this month!

Esther’s unusual and beautiful colour combination of hot pink/magenta, muted dark green and grey on a cream or white background is producing some really beautiful blocks, some of which are already up in the Gallery.  To see her original colour inspiration, head over to the Members & Colours page, where we’ve all shown images that have inspired our colour choices. It’s been a busy month for all of us, catching up on the backlog after Christmas, but we’re currently up to date, and looking good!

I will be travelling at the end of next month, when the final F²F² round up is due, so I’m giving you advance notice that the final report will be a few days late. It’ll give us all time to get our final blocks completed in good order as we bid a fond farewell to Foot²Freestyle.

I hope those of you in the Northern Hemisphere are staying safe and warm this winter, while those of us Down Under are sweltering in a long and tiring heatwave of 30°- 45°C (85° – 113°F).  I wonder if there’s any normal weather anywhere in the world right now!

See you at the end of the month with the January round up.