Dark Turkey

The RSC colour for November is "dark," which is certainly appropriate for November around here. Next week I'll be putting the snow tires on the car. With luck, I won't really need them until January, but it is good to beat the rush.

As you can see, my three dark Bonnie Hunter Talkin' Turkey blocks, for my quilt Technicolor Turkey, are done.

Most of my dark/black fabrics were bought with my Collector quilt in mind, when I was very interested in the idea of "sparkle" and high-contrast fabrics. I think the prints help to keep the blocks from feeling too heavy.

And my weakness for fussy cutting continues as well!

We're in the home stretch now, so I've made a start on the sashing too. In August I had the idea for a pieced sashing similar to the sashing I made for Hanami.

Stack of beige strips

But, then I thought that a solid sashing would be better, and I cut about half the strips.

I thought I would start sewing them on as I go, but after only three I ran out of steam. Then they sat in the bottom of the drawer for a month.

Second stack of beige strips

For two weeks now I've been seriously looking at all my UFOs, and asking why have they stalled. The answer on this project is that I have to do the pieced sashing after all. It's more work, but doing it right is actually less stress.

Now, all that's left are the two multicolour blocks that were needed for April. I deliberately saved them until the end so I could use leftovers from all the other blocks.

Right now, though, I'm busy re-quilting Picnic. Yesterday I planned to sew together those sashing strips, but the free motion foot was on the machine for Picnic, and I just have to finish it before I change back to regular sewing. So it may be a while! Nothing creates dead time on the blog like a large quilting job.

In the meantime, check out all the other dark blocks at the RSC link up, right here.

Cardinal Stars Finish

It's almost exactly seven years since I first cut the fabric for this quilt, and Cardinal Stars is finally finished!

It's one year since I sewed the red binding and extra yellow flange to the front. I learned how to do it from Mimi Dietrich's book Happy Endings (Martingale 2013), which is practical and helpful.

I thought that machine sewing the high contrast yellow flange nice and straight would be the hardest part. But then I wrecked my back, which changed my posture, and it turned out that hand sewing the binding to the back of the quilt had become extremely painful.

I don't have arthritis, the problem is excessively loose joints and pinched nerves. Every couple of months I would try another few inches of binding, and the pain would return. I used to hand sew every day, and for the past year this binding is the only thing I've even attempted.

But, over the last month I've been working on my shoulder, and whatever was out of place seems to have corrected itself. Yesterday I was able to finish the last side and the last corner in one sitting! So that is a considerable relief.

I'm not going to jump back into a full schedule of hand sewing, but at least now I know I can do it once in a while.

Cardinal Stars, about 62" x 62" (158 x 158 cm)

After all that drama, the finish feels a little anticlimactic to me. But, I think all my experiments -- retrimming and remaking the blocks, "floating" the blocks on the background, my first time renting a long arm, and the flanged binding -- were quite successful. I have learned a TON, and I think part of the reason why this quilt feels out of sync to me now is because I've come so far.

So, yay! A second finish for 2017, an ooold UFO off the books, and some hand sewing hope for the future. :D

Green, Part Two

Last month I shared my three forest green blocks for my Technicolor Turkey RSC17 project, based on Bonnie Hunter's Talkin' Turkey pattern. This time it's lime green.

I tried, but I was completely unable to resist using this Jolly Jungle fabric in the centre of all three blocks!

It is So Darn Cute.

There is not a lot of contrast between some of the limes and some of the backgrounds. But, I think other blocks have more than enough contrast to make up for it.

If you set the pattern with the darker colours, you will see it here too.

At least, that's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Check out the rest of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge participants at the link up right here.








I've also been thinking ahead to next year already. I have a really crazy idea...

...and this is the first stage of deciding how it could work.

So far, it seems doable.

Of course, just because I can, doesn't mean I should...

...but so far, it seems to have legs.

It's a Really Crazy Idea.

Enough for Now

So yes, they're very cute, but I think that my Hallowe'en diversion with Jacks and Cats is over for now. It is just over six weeks until the next Bonnie Hunter mystery, and before that

• Technicolor Turkey must be done, and
• Allietare must be done.

At least I finished up all 55 of the wonky nine patches I planned for Jacks and Cats...

...and that feels like a natural stopping point. They will be trimmed to different sizes depending on where they end up in the quilt. Next time I open the box, I will have to finalize my plan for the applique. Right now that still feels tricky, so it's back to the basement for this project!

Technicolor Turkey is going really well, and I'm feeling good about that. And about 20 months after I bought it, I've finally realized that I don't like the fabric I bought for my Allietare border. New fabric is on the way! So I'm hoping that will be an easy finish now too.

With the year end approaching, my list of 2017 finishes is feeling too short. I'll have to see what I can do about that!

Feels like Fall!

Well, the season has finally turned here in Ontario. Even though the colours have not been the best this year, I still love all the gold undertones in the leaves, contrasted against the grey sky. I've been contemplating this colour scheme for Bonnie Hunter's next mystery, but I'll wait until she reveals her colours before I make up my mind. I still think blue & white is a good idea too...

But anyway, Technicolor Turkey is well in hand, so I felt like I could take a break and pull out my old Hallowe'en UFO, Jacks and Cats. I need 55 wonky nine patches for the alternate blocks and pieced border. I'm making them in pairs:

And I've been rediscovering a lot of interesting fabrics in that box! Love those sunflowers above. These oak leaves on the right are terribly dated, but I do still like them. Back in the spring another quilter expressed surprise that I have fabrics from the 90s in my stash. And I was surprised that she was surprised! But I was thinking today that the 90s were 20 years ago, so maybe I am a little out of touch. :D

All the blocks are still waiting for their final trim, but I made reasonable progress today:

I have no illusions that I'm going to finish this quilt this year, but it will be nice to move it along. I've changed my mind several times about how to handle the applique blocks, and more experimentation is necessary. In the meantime, I can play around a little more with these blocks. I think I will give them a little extra improv treatment.

And once these blocks and the border are done, there really will be no more excuses for avoiding the applique.

Plenty to do!