Little Wooly Baskets

Little Wooly Baskets, block 2

Resistance is Futile

Or, even more accurately, resisting something makes it a certainty!

On Thursday night I made a quick list of the projects I want to get done in the next few months. Plenty to keep me busy! "Really," I thought to myself, "I would have a satisfying year without one more new project. I have tons of great projects already started. I should resolve to spend the rest of the year finishing some of them"

Friday morning I was clicking through blogland, and this project, "Little Wooly Baskets," caught my eye. Again. I know a few people have joined in with this free BOM by Dawn Heese at Linen Closet Designs, but I have deliberately resisted looking at it too closely. Because I know that once I start thinking about how it might work, I am done for. But, on Friday I had a look at the patterns:

I really love those unpretentious ink sketches! So much scope to make it my own way! For me, that is the primary appeal of any given pattern -- how much room for personalization does it have? So, that was that. I've been wanting to design a pattern with neutral baskets and colourful flowers for a couple of years. Now I don't have to, I can just make Dawn's!

There will be two blocks per month for a total of 24 blocks. I went down to my stash and pulled 12 beige fabrics, but somehow I only cut one square from each of them. What to do? Should I unfold and cut them again, or can I find 12 more suitable beiges in the stash? Well, it wasn't too hard to come up with 24 unique backgrounds:

Now I'm well on the way! The first four blocks are all cut out, laid out, and basted into place. I plan to spend an enjoyable Slow Sunday Stitching stitching them down.

(Edit 16/5/16: Well, somehow I got the wrong end of the stick, and there are only 12 patterns after all. I guess I read "12" and "2 per month" and jumped to the wrong conclusion!)

Little Wooly Baskets, block 4

This past week I've been breaking my back with machine quilting, so this little project will be a welcome relief!

As I mentioned, this is a free BOM. You can download the patterns for Blocks 1 & 2 here, and Blocks 3 & 4 here. You can also read Dawn's introduction and the fabric requirements right here.

(Edit 16/5/16: To see all my Little Wooly Baskets posts so far, please click here.)

And finally, don't forget to see what everyone else is making for Slow Sunday Stitching by clicking this link right here.

You can see that Mod Trips is now washed and put into service. On to the next!

Have a great day everyone!

March Butterflies

The Kaleidoscope of Butterflies continues this month, and I've been stitching all weekend to get my next butterfly block done.

I'm glad this link up came along! I've been feeling a paralyzing amount of angst about the fabric choices for this project. But, these stitched sections are all decided, so I can do them now, and worry about the rest later. And I have a feeling that once these are done, and I can put everything up on the wall together, it will be easy to see what's next. Or at least, easier.

This is Block 2 of Leanne Beasley's stitchery quilt, Down in the Garden:

There was a lot of stitching on this one! And most of it yellow and gold. I seem to be on a yellow theme right now. But, given that this is the scene outside today...

 ...I think it balances out. No real life butterflies here! A spring green needleturn butterfly will have to be enough for now:

For more kaleidoscopes and butterflies, check out the Kaleidoscope of Butterflies link up, right here.

Basking in the Sunshine

It's Improv Week again over at the Ad Hoc Improv Quilters link up. I was so busy quilting Mod Trips this month, that I had no time for improv. But, I figured, why not start now?

For this week's trick, I'm using Sujata Shah's Cultural Fusion techniques to make curvy half square triangles...

...and curvy rail fence units...

...and combine them into curvy churn dash blocks!

A churn dash quilt has been on my to do list for several years. Then when my guild started its crayon challenge, I hoped for a yellow crayon so I could make a yellow and white churn dash quilt. I got purple, but I liked this idea enough to make it anyway.

And, I've been thinking for a while that Sujata's elements could be combined to make interesting traditional blocks.

So, this is Modern Utility Quilt #2, which I'm calling "Sunshine." It's possible that this could turn into a series. And it's also looking likely that these Riley Blake ginghams will keep showing up:

I went to a lot of trouble to get the complete set of those ginghams in all 11 colours and 3 sizes when they were released. I thought I would put them all in the same quilt. But once they arrived, that seemed uninspired, and they sat in a box in the basement. Now I think several quilts will be better!

All the fabric is stash, like my first Modern Utility Quilt, and it seemed like a good chance to use all those large and small scale florals I used to buy. These are the first two blocks I made:

I have to say, I was feeling some doubt at this point. But I had the fabric cut for the first eight blocks, so I kept going:

It was all darker and browner than I expected. And was that citron Mini Pearl Bracelet really a good idea?

In improv theatre, the formula is to always say "yes, and..." So I squelched my doubts and thought, "ok, where do I go from here?" Most of the really pale yellows I'd pulled went back in the stash. The rest I pinned right up on the wall with the finished blocks:

This seemed like a crazy idea at first, but it turned out to be really helpful to sit back and see how everything was working together. So on Monday, I'll be linking up to Design Wall Monday as well!

All the fabrics fit into that range between the citron and gold of the first two blocks. I think the pure white fabric makes the dark fabrics look darker, so there will be less of that combination in the remaining blocks.

I've been looking at this pile of yellow fabric on my sewing table for a few days now, and I'm feeling good about where it's going. But, I promised myself I would get some more things quilted before the hot weather returns, so I will have to pack it up soon.

And before I go, look what I found when I logged into Blogger this afternoon:

I always enjoy these little synchronicities, which I know is why I keep finding them. This is a particularly good one. And it's probably why I "accidentally" logged into Blogger before I had my photos edited. And, check out the rest of the page:

LOL!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the improv quilting at the February link up, right here. Happy quilting!