Moth Movement

It's the beginning of the month, and the Kaleidoscope of Butterflies continues! Although I haven't posted about my Moth in the Window project since June, there has been steady behind-the-scenes progress nevertheless.

1. I bought more fabric.

I carelessly checked to see what was new from Art Gallery fabrics, and I could not resist a few of these Sage prints by Bari J.

2. I decided (again) to make it bigger.

Reading back, I see that my original plan was 90 blocks, but I know that after the last post I settled on 56. But, now I have more fabrics to use, so the final plan is 81 blocks and just a simple solid border.

3. I cut all the fabric.

This summer I realized that it is a lot easier on my shoulder to cut shorter strips, rather than a full width of fabric. And it is easier to keep the short cut pieces neatly stored and organized, too.

Since I don't have a dedicated studio, this has proven to be a real improvement in the process!

4. I made a few more blocks.

Somehow it really entertains me to have the same fabric in different colourways, like this background fabric here. It's like a poem that rhymes.

5. And a few more...

Yes, this last one on the left is another dud. Two pretty fabrics, not pretty together. But, with 81 blocks to choose from, I'm hoping a few imperfect ones will just blend in.

Right at the end of August I took this photo of our sedum, which was just swarming with honeybees. Driving around the neighbourhood, almost everyone who has a garden has this same plant, so it is good to know that the bees are well fed before they go down for the winter.

For me, I'm sorry I've been MIA for most of the past month. When hurricane Maria was bearing down on Florida, I had my own emergency, with a late night ambulance ride, two difficult and painful procedures, and an unexpectedly long and difficult recovery. It has made me pretty grumpy, and I expect it will still be a few weeks before I am back to normal. But, at least I can still sew a little. :D

Green for May, Part One

The RSC colour for September is orange, and I finished my three orange blocks for my Technicolor Turkey quilt last week. I still have to catch up for two months that I missed -- multicolour for April, and green for May. When I started looking through my scraps for green, I had a huge pile in no time at all!

That's no surprise since green is my favourite colour. But also, I had a lot of strips left over from my mostly green colourway of Bonnie Hunter's last mystery, En Provence. Remember the flamingos? They still make me happy.

I already have some plans for the next mystery, and I am looking right now at a pile of new fabric that I need to wash for that.

But, first things first. Looking at my pile of green strips, I decided to increase my green blocks from four to six, and divide them into warm, light limes and cool dark forests, same as I did for En Provence.

Then I can send the worst of the yellow blocks, made when I'd cut everything too small, to the orphan box.

And instead of three multicolour blocks, I'll only make two. I'm feeling some doubt about how those are going to turn out! But, that's the fun of the challenge.

The scrap box still yielded an intact female cardinal from my Cardinal Stars quilt! It seemed right to pair her with some Canadian flags, since the cardinals stay with us year round.

So, that finishes up the three forest green blocks. Next week, lime. I'm starting to get the scent of the finish!

I really appreciate that Angela has already revealed the order of the last two RSC colours -- it will be pink in October, and darks in November. I'm determined to finish this flimsy by Turkey Day (Thanksgiving) in the US. Then I can start Bonnie's mystery with a clear conscience!

Click here to see all the other posts for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week. Enjoy your weekend!

Orange Turkey

Turkey à la Orange? I guess that's usually duck.

Anyway...it's back to Bonnie Hunter's Talkin' Turkey blocks and my RSC17 project, Technicolor Turkey.

It's actually about six weeks since I worked on this project, and it was fun to get back to it today. The oranges sure are juicy, aren't they?

And I guess orange represents Florida this week too. Prayers and best wishes for everyone who is hunkered down or getting out before Irma comes ashore tonight.

I know there are a lot of bloggers and families of bloggers living in Florida, including the RSC organizer Angela. So click the link here and wish everyone well!

Neutral?

Last night I said to myself, "Omigosh, tomorrow is Saturday already!" Saturday is the RSC link up, and I have done very little sewing for two weeks now. But today I managed to shift into gear and make a start on my neutral string units for Rose Boll.

Although, "neutral" seems like the wrong term for all my rosey florals!

A few of these fabrics have been in my stash since the 90s. And of course, I did buy a few more too.

My first thought was to keep these strings very light. But, the alternate sawtooth blocks are quite stark and high contrast. So, I decided to put in the darker pink and gold strings to balance the final quilt a little better.

I am getting keen to see how it will look all together!

This is 14 done, and 50 needed, so there is still a lot to do. But, it feels like good progress.

Click here to see all the other variations on neutral at RSC today!

Middling Along

I'm back in the middle of Rose Boll this week. Aren't these fabrics gorgeous? I just love them! Click any photo to see them all full sized.

I have to say, it is already looking better than I dared to dream. When I bought the fabric last fall, I admit I felt some guilt about it. Couldn't I have made do with what I had?

Now I have no doubt that it was the right call to buy all the extra reds. The deep reds are needed to hold their own with all the florals.

And, I certainly didn't want to skimp on florals!

The mix of prints is so much fun. This time the pictures really do not do it justice.

Anyway, the middles are all done. The sawtooth edges are next!

Whisperin' Turkey

If the name of these Bonnie Hunter blocks is Talkin' Turkey, then this low volume colourway must surely be whisperin!

When I was deciding whether or not to start this project, the idea of these inverse, white blocks was the clincher. And I'm so happy with how they turned out!

I already knew I was on the right track when I finished the string units:

I really think this is my favourite colour scheme.

I've been saying for a while that I'm ready to close the book on all these text fabrics (yes, sorry). But now that I am near the end on this Warm Wishes fabric, I will miss it. It has been just the right touch in so many projects! Maybe I will have to look for some more text fabrics after all.

Anyway, once again only three blocks are needed for this month's colour.

But, I definitely hope to re-visit these white strings in a future project! We'll see how things shake out. 

And as always, you can see all the other variations on "light" at the RSC link up, right here.

Red for March

The original Bonnie Hunter Talkin' Turkey quilt is all in shades of red and beige. I can see why! The red blocks really pop.

These blocks are so fun to make! This has been the most string units I've made for a project so far. They are so effective that I've been making an effort to take photos before I cut them. Do you see the sushi fabric?

I still had a scrap left!

Interestingly, I found that it's hard to have a range of values in red. You have to run between pink and black, or rely on red and white prints. Or red and black prints.

I bought quite a lot of that Canadian flag fabric from Connecting Threads. I think I'll be using it for many years!

And there are still a lot of Kaffe Collective scraps as well. Most of those are originally from Collector.

So, that's March done and dusted. I'm zooming along! What will be next?

But for now, don't forget to check out all the other blue blocks still being made for RSC in July, right here.

Bonjour Beautiful Blue!

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for July 2017 is blue. My three blue Talkin' Turkey blocks for my Technicolor Turkey quilt are done!

My stash is mostly sorted by colour, and I have to admit that I don't open my blue box as often as I should. I found a lot of goodies in there! Even though I have a lot of fabric, I still remember where and why I bought almost all of it. But there were a few that I truly had forgotten.

See that gorgeous batik with the orange leaves? My best guess is that I must have bought that on a whim at a show somewhere. I used to always buy fabric with a specific project in mind, but I cannot remember any plan for that one.

And the fabric with the little sunflowers? I also have that in sage green, which tells you something about its age. Those are also probably from a show. I always buy sunflower fabric when I see it!

Anyway, three blue blocks are all I need, so I think that next time I will keep catching up on the months I missed, and go back to red for March.

In the meantime, there is plenty more blue in the RSC link up, right here.

Have a great weekend!

Aqua for February

A scrap from Flamingos en Provence!

The RSC17 colour for February was aqua, but I pulled a wide range of blue greens from light sea green and aqua through dark turquoise and teal for my Talkin' Turkey blocks. Recently I have been a lot more mindful of the benefit of using a full range of values in my projects. Well, since my water lily misstep, actually. Katie Pasquini Masopust recommends a 7-step value scale for the projects in her book, and around the same time I saw an episode of Quilting Arts (Series 18) on PBS where one of the teachers had a 7-step scale made from paint chips. That seemed like a good idea, so now I have these:

Technically, the white should probably be pure white. But then I thought, how often do I use pure white fabric? Or pure black. Anyway, it is a work in progress. But, the point is that I used to think in terms of a 3-step value range, light - medium - dark, and I've realized that a project looks much fuller and well rounded if you use more gradations. Even in a scrappy block like Talkin' Turkey!

So, I can't have all 7 steps in each colour, but I'm trying for 4 or 5.

And since RSC17 will include a "light" month and a "dark" month, both still to come, I'll definitely be able to use all 7 values in the complete quilt. I think it will pay off!

And, with all this 7 step practice, I'm hoping my next attempt at the water lily will be more successful!

Of course, I'm still up to my old tricks in this quilt too. It was impossible not to fussy cut this slice of cucumber, left over from Picnic.

Maybe it would have been better off centre? Something to consider next time. I think I still have a piece of cucumber saved for the green blocks, too. I hope so!

Right now, though, I'm going to start work on the colour for July. So, it adios to aqua, and bonjour blue!

To see all the other RSC blue projects this week, click right here.

Purple for January

Since I'm starting the 2017 Rainbow Scrap Challenge halfway through the year, I've decided to go back to the beginning and fill in the months I've missed. The colour for January was purple.

It seems that I've gone back to my purple-blind ways, because there were only two purple scraps in my scrap box -- the birdcages and the Scottie dogs. Everything else was cut new from stash. And I used almost every purple fabric I have!

But, once I had these string sections made, I was really loving purple once again. The mix of purples is so juicy!

Now that I've properly read the instructions, these Talkin' Turkey blocks went together just fine. I really love the mix of techniques! It keeps me interested.

I also am finding that one colour at a time is a very efficient way to make blocks. My stash is mostly sorted by colour, so I only have to open one box. And when the blocks are done, it is easy to put the fabrics back again! Filing the fabrics back again is always the hardest part of stash maintenance. :D

The next RSC link up will be on Saturday, right here. I can't wait to learn the colour for July!

Saturday is also Canada's big 150th anniversary, so I think I'll do a red & white retrospective for that. No new project! I've been racking my brain, but, I haven't had any exciting new Canada-themed ideas. There are already plenty out there!

In the meantime, purple is done. February will be aqua, and the strings are already looking good!