Flamingos en Provence Flimsy

Yesterday I sewed the last long seam to finish the pieced centre of my version of Bonnie Hunter's 2016 mystery quilt, En Provence (now available to buy as a digital pattern, right here). Bonnie's quilt has 16 blocks, and I simplified it to nine:

Since I still wanted a bed sized quilt, my plan was to sew a pieced border that would transition to my flamingo feature fabric from Iza Pearl. I carried the cornerstone diamonds out into the low volume border:

The diamonds were outlined with one of the flamingo collection fabrics, a leafy green blender. I love how it looks in the photo above, but it did get lost a little when I sewed on the final wide border today:

Flamingos en Provence flimsy, 86" x 86" (218 x 218 cm)

I do kind of wish now that I had made it full size, with all sixteen green blocks and less border. But, I just have a few strings left from my two main white fabrics, so it's done! And I like it.

Huge thanks to Bonnie for another great mystery! And thank you to all the other mystery participants too -- this year I picked up a few good ideas from other quilters in the link up:

• Let the seam allowances go the way they want. A couple of Allietare makers said this last year too, but this is the first time I tried it. It is much easier and faster to just twist the seam allowances as needed so they all butt together.
• Sew in quadrants. When you sew together the quilt in four quadrants, and then join them at the end, there is only ever one long seam. That made it easier and faster, and it's going to be a big help as I finish Allietare, too.
• Count down the pieces. A couple of quilters counted down how many pieces they had left to sew, until the whole thing was in one piece. I thought that would be motivating, and it was! When there are a lot of pieces, the seams are short, so it feels like fast progress. And when the seams get longer, you are also down to the last 20 or 15 or 10 pieces, and the end is in sight. Worked for me!

So, I'm thrilled to be done pretty much on schedule. I had hoped to be done by the end of January for OMG, but my fall back position was always Bonnie's final link up in February. It'll start on Monday, right here.

To see all my previous posts on this project, please click here.

And now I am done with schedules for the year! But the list is still long -- Allietare, Hanami and Hen Party are my first priorities, and my next "new" quilt is still going to be Prairie Star, with new improved fabrics and hopefully, better feng shui. Stay tuned!

Still Sewing

I fully expected to log on this evening and see everyone's finishes for Bonnie Hunter's 2016 mystery quilt, En Provence. But the link up's not there! Just as well, because I'm not finished yet anyway. Perhaps Bonnie was distracted by the epicness of this year's Super Bowl! For some reason, I kept watching even when it was clearly over, and I was glad I did! What a game.

Since I'm late with En Provence anyway, today I decided to pull out Allietare and see how it looked. It was still in blocks, which was worse than I thought. But now it looks like this:

This is three large sections laid out together. Mine seems to be more red than many of the others I've seen. Those red Kaffe Collective fabrics really glow! The black stars will be 5 x 5, so you can see I'm almost halfway already. I've realized that I don't need to iron every seam as I sew, and that has sped things up remarkably.

It was also interesting to compare Allietare with En Provence:

About half the whites are the same in each project, and it does give them a similar feel. Plus I put a bluish constant fabric in the background of both, so that ties them together too.

I'm thrilled with them both, so I'm not complaining! But next time (yes, I'm already thinking about the next one), I'll have to try something different.

En Provence is currently in 23 pieces, so it's still coming along. That's the centre block plus sashing in the photo above. Shouldn't be tooo much longer!

Sashaying en Provence

I think I'm still on schedule to finish the flimsy for Bonnie Hunter's 2016 mystery, En Provence, by the end of the month. As of today, all the sashing is done:

Like several others, I made a couple changes in the sashing. Instead of hourglasses, I made the dark green Tri Recs sections. That will make the circle effect of the blocks more pronounced. Actually, it is also more like Bonnie Hunter's previous mystery, Celtic Solstice. I didn't make that one, and now maybe I won't have to!

I also used an all-white four patch section in the centre of the sashing, instead of the dark green/light green four patch in the pattern. Somehow, the circle works better if that is white.

Here are four more blocks done, one with three sides of sashing sewn on:

And, to zoom in on a few details...

In my stash I found this coral and pink Iza Pearl print from the Garden Party Tango collection. The flamingos are all Iza Pearl too. Obviously, this one needed to be fussy cut!

I also found two large scale Free Spirit prints.

I call them "optimized," rather than strictly fussy cut. :D

And, zooming in even further, you can see some of the light aqua flamingo blender in the "white" four patch in the centre. The pink flamingo blender is also scattered among the whites.

So, fingers crossed, the next post will be the finished flimsy.

Journey to Provence

Have you ever done this?

Mountains en Provence?

You have to be very organized to screw up in this particular way! Yesterday morning I slowly and carefully started to put together my new hourglasses for Bonnie Hunter's 2016 mystery quilt, En Provence:

I slowly and carefully picked up two pieces with my left hand and one piece with my right, pinned them, butted the seams, and sewed almost all the way across before I realized! Not a good start, but after that things went smoothly. And I think everyone will agree that the black is a lot better in these units than the light aqua I tried first, here.

But, to back it up, I have been sewing like a maniac for over a week now. When Bonnie revealed the mystery on January 1, which you can see here for a few more weeks, I was way behind. I had finished Clue #2, the Tri-Recs units in our constant fabric, and Clue #3, the green four patches. After the reveal I decided to go back to Clue #1 and make over 100 white four patches, about a zillion more Tri-Recs units (that's certainly how it felt) for Clue #4, and the big HSTs for Clue #5:

This is NOT all of them

For the low-volume, all white units, I pulled some fairly high volume fabrics from my stash:

I am actually sick to death of all my low volume text fabrics, and fortunately they are nearly gone anyway. I will not be buying more! But I do like how these new fabrics worked. And they've already given me a new idea for another quilt!

Don't worry, I will finish this one first! To avoid distractions, I forced myself to get all the units done before I made a block. And, I also sewed as much of the block background as possible before I put in the pinks. The selection of pinks is a little different now than last time:

And tonight, finally, one block is done:

It is pretty sparky, I think, with the high volume blacks and whites, as well as the contrast between my very dark and very light greens. But I like it, and the sashing will tame it a little. The white fabric in the corners will be a constant in the sashing, so that will tie it all together more. I have a fancy border planned for the flamingo fabric, and I have high hopes for how that will turn out.

One block done, eight to go, plus pieced sashing and pieced border. My One Monthly Goal is to finish the flimsy by the end of January, and I think I am on track. In the meantime, check out all the other En Provence quilts in the link up here, including a few finished quilts. The key to finishing fast is to stick to the pattern, but I am happy with my progress too. :D

OMG, Butterflies en Provence!

It's time for the Kaleidoscope of Butterflies link up this month. Last month I was on the lookout for some butterflies, and I captured this one "in the wild."

You can see by the lint that this fabric spent a long time in my scrap bin! This stack of triangles is for foundation piecing in Wild & Goosey. The scrap bin is now almost empty! But the stack of triangles keeps growing as I add the leftovers from other projects.

Also this week, Bonnie Hunter revealed the final layout for her 2016 mystery quilt, En Provence. You can see it here, for the next few weeks. I love it! I especially like the circular effect with the purple in the big blocks. And I have to say, I was genuinely mystified. I thought I knew where it was going, and I was wrong!

But anyway, let me remind you of my flamingo-inspired colourway:

Bonnie's quilt has sixteen of those circle blocks, so for my simplified version I thought nine would work well. I am using pink where Bonnie used yellow, and I noticed that her yellow fabrics are quite light. I have that light pink flamingo blender, and I thought that would be perfect!

Argh, no, it is horrible! The light aqua adds nothing, and there are just too many flamingos. Does it look better with the green squares added? It does not. So many pretty fabrics, so terrible all together. Right from the start I had a feeling that it would be risky to change the values in the quilt. But, I ignored the doubts and forged ahead! I should know by now to listen to those niggling doubts.

So now I have quite a few pink flamingos to add to the stack of triangles for Wild & Goosey! What a useful project.

Looking closely at Bonnie's finished quilt, some of her greens (where I used aqua) are almost black. And they are extremely scrappy with a wide range of values, which gives a lot of interest. I needed something very grounding too. I considered dark pinks or reds, but then I thought, why not black? I have some bold black prints in my stash that could give that same range of interest that Bonnie has:

And look, there's that same butterfly fabric again! I haven't cut them yet, but I'm keen to see how they will work.

I also like that the larger pieces in this project will show off some of my larger scale, modern fabrics. Here are pinks I settled on:

They looked good in the sunlight there, didn't they?

By Monday I hope to have at least a block or two to share, and by the last link up in February I am determined to have the flimsy done. So that is my One Monthly Goal for January as well -- En Provence flimsy by the end of the month. Only nine blocks! Plus, pieced sashing and pieced border...

Right now I am still catching up on the clues I skipped. Here are my green hsts from clue #5:

And today I was cutting these fabrics for more Tri-Recs units from clue #4:

After considerable thought, I've also decided to go back and piece some of the all-white four patch units from clue #1. Those are next!

Green Squares

It's been like the green hills of Ireland around here this weekend!

It's time for the Week 3 link up for Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, En Provence. Instead of Bonnie's purple four patch blocks, my flamingo-inspired colourway uses light and dark green instead.

For my simpler version of the quilt, I guessed that 100 blocks would be about the right number. Fifty have one square with flamingos on light green,

And fifty have one square with flamingos on dark green.

There are a few blocks where the flamingos were a little shy!

Overall, it's a lot of green. But, it's really nice to be working with a wide range of fabrics in colour this week! And I'm totally done! Whatever will I do with myself until the next clue?

In the meantime, please check out all the other mainly lavender-inspired squares at the link up here. Happy quilting!

Week 2 En Provence

It's time for the link up to share our work on Week 2 of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, En Provence. We made isosceles triangle units using the Tri Recs ruler set, our constant fabric, and our whites. For the next few weeks, you can read the whole clue here.

My constant fabric is turquoise instead of Bonnie's magenta. For the white I used the same fabric as my white squares last week. The minty green in the white matches the turquoise so well! Now, though, I probably don't have enough to make all the Week 1 squares in this fabric too. I'm sure I can find something else, though.

Looking at the sunflowers in Bonnie's En Provence button, I really thought we'd be making these units in yellow and green! I guess I am too literal sometimes. :D

Bonnie provided us with downloadable foundation patterns, but I made my own. I really like to have the seam allowance marked. And in this case I also carried the stitching line right through the seam allowance. When it comes time to sew paper pieced units into the quilt, I find it goes much better when there are no floppy edges from partially sewn (or crooked!) seams in the seam allowance.

Last year I was very keen on all the triangle rulers, and down on paper piecing. I still like the rulers -- there is no waste, you don't get the build up of thread in the seam, and it could be a little faster -- but, I find that cutting accurately with a triangle ruler is harder on my joints. Cumulatively, I'm hoping that foundation piecing will make me less sore.

I still used the Tri Recs ruler set to rough cut my pieces, though. I bought it just for this project, so I was glad to use it a little!

Since I'm planning to make fewer blocks, I think 64 of these units will be a nice, symmetrical number.

Bring on clue three!

And, please check out everyone else's work at the Week 2 link up, right here.

White Squares

The first clue for Bonnie Hunter's En Provence mystery quilt is to make 200+ all white four patch blocks. Today we are all showing our work. I've been thinking that this may be the most "low volume" link up ever!

I've changed my mind about how to handle these several times since Friday. My first thought was to use my flamingo feature fabric:

But then I realized that 200+ squares would be a LOT of fussy cutting, and I changed my mind. Please click here to read the whole flamingo story, including my revised colourway.

Let's be honest, I was thinking that all those white squares would be really boring. But then I remembered that I had done exactly that in both Mod Trips and Hanami, with their pieced, low volume backgrounds. And I'm very happy with both of them! So, I'll just do it, I said.

I pulled out my white fabrics. Most are leftovers from Allietare. I still have larger pieces of these:

And small dribs and drabs of these:

I'm now using these for the third time, and the excitement is wearing thin. But, I have a couple big chunks of this...

..."Big Blooms" by Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller. This is a really lovely quality fabric, with a high thread count and crisp print. I used a fair bit in Allietare last year...

...and when I restocked with another yard this summer, the owner of the shop asked me what I would use it for. "Just stash," I said, and I mentioned that I'd put it in Allietare, "but the pieces were so small that you couldn't really see it."

So yesterday I thought, am I really going to cut it up in tiny pieces again? No! Plain squares of the Big Blooms it will be, and hopefully my 1.75 yds will be enough for the whole quilt. If I have to, I will piece a few blocks to fill in. Or, I may even want to piece a few just to change things up. But for now, Clue 1 is done!

Looking at the math, these white squares account for almost all of our allotted white fabric. There is at most 1/2 yd left. And, they make up about one quarter of the finished top! So, that is a lot of progress considering I haven't sat at the machine yet. :D

Please click here to return to the link up and see everyone else's white squares low volume blocks. Happy quilting!

The Most Quiltiest Time...

Here's the sky outside at about 8:15 this morning. I'm sure that all over the northern hemisphere people are looking out at similar scenes these days. The clouds are so thick that the street lights come on in the middle of the afternoon, and inside we have the lights on all day. Nothing inspires me to quilt more than a day like this! To me it's the most, quiltiest time of the year.

Bonnie Hunter's first clue for En Provence came out this morning. You can read it here, for the next two months. We're making a whole bunch of all-white four patch blocks. "Woo hoo," I thought at first, "easy!" But...then I thought maybe this would be a fun place to do something silly with my flamingo fabric...

"Maybe I should wait and see how the squares are used before I make any commitments," I thought. (Although, on further reflection there's no way I'm going to fussy cut this fabric 200+ times. But, I decided to wait and see, so that's what I'll do.)

Outside, it is still perfect quilting weather:

Plus, I've been waiting all month to start a new project today. A new project. Today.

Allietare is the obvious substitution. It's so close to finished.

All the red blocks are done, and I just have seven of the black star blocks left.

So, I put this one together. Six left.

Then I remembered that it's AHIQ again this week! Thank goodness! The Allietare blocks are beautiful, but they are slow going with a lot of seams to match. 

Back in October I started a new improv-ish project. But I only made a couple of blocks before my back fell apart. Now I have like a "free week" to get that moving. This is it -- Liberated Stars!

These are Gwen Marston's style of liberated star block. I love the way they look, and they are fun to make, too. I should have had some in my Gwennie Medallion, but I wanted to re-purpose those bear claws instead.

Now I've decided to make a whole quilt of liberated stars. Liberated Stars for a New Day.

Yes! Remember this crazy thing?

That will be the centre. It's still a medallion, but Sue Garman's feathered star is the only thing left of her pattern. Last year I simplified it by enlarging all the pieces to suit my low-thread count fabric. This year I am going to liberate all the stars, large and small. 

I plan to make it much scrappier, too. I bought a lot of that Heirloom Manor collection from Connecting Threads (on sale now), which is very brown and tan. Now it will be primarily used for the backgrounds, and I'll use brighter scraps for the stars.

In fact, all those bright yellow star points are reclaimed fabric from Cardinal Stars. I had tons left over when I redesigned it, and I just couldn't bring myself to throw it all out.

I spent one evening watching tv with the seam ripper, and reduced the old hsts back into triangles. I know it seems crazy, and you may be relieved to know that the black triangles all went in the garbage!

But, I really think it was worth it, because you need triangles anyway to make the liberated stars, and everything was just the right size.

And this intense yellow does look sharp on the navy background:

There are some Brinton Hall leftovers in the centres, too. 

Scrappy and liberated seems way more interesting than my previous plans for this quilt. I've been thinking about and redesigning Stars for a New Day for years now. I guess it takes as long as it takes, because this is the plan that has traction and that I am 100% happy with. Another star quilt!

Let's hope I can do a little more before Bonnie's next clue for En Provence. :D