Flamingos!

Iza Pearl Flamingos

Flamingos!

Bonnie Hunter's Provence

For Bonnie!!

Right after the final reveal of Allietare last January, I started making colour plans for the next Bonnie Hunter mystery. For Allietare I pretty much stayed in the box, and only changed one colour from Bonnie's palette. This time, I wanted something totally different! My plan was to go with pure blue and white, and carefully manage the values to reveal the pattern. Cool and elegant, I thought.

Flamingos

Sometime mid-summer I got an email announcing the release of this gorgeous Flamingos collection by Melissa Ybarra of Iza Pearl Design. I love that watercolour style of print, I loved all the greens and aquas, and I've always loved flamingos. Wouldn't it be crazy, I suddenly thought, to forget the blue and white, and somehow use this collection for Bonnie's next mystery? I particularly liked all the blenders with the mini flamingos.

But, I squelched down the idea. I had a good plan. Then, for the first Slow Sunday Stitching link up after my summer break, hostess Kathy had a photo of a flamingo pool toy. I know Kathy has done Bonnie's mystery for several years, so there was that association again -- Flamingos, and Bonnie! I went shopping.

However, Bonnie's announcement of the new mystery, En Provence, was very tempting too. Her colourway is almost half purple, and she mentions a "halo" of magenta. Even though purple is not my favourite colour, this sounds very promising to me! The effect with dark and light purples, and some kind of bridge in magenta, could be really gorgeous. And yellow sunflowers! I love those too. Dilemma.

In the end, I still didn't have enough purple in my stash. And it turns out that flamingos are completely appropriate anyway!

Flamingos in Provence

By User Jjshapiro on en.wikipedia - Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is (was) here16:50, 28 August 2005 Jjshapiro 480×360 (68,708 bytes) (Flamingos in the Camargue, photographed 2004 by Jeremy Shapiro. {{GFDL}}), CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

The word flamingo originates via Spanish or Portuguese from the old Provençal word for flame, and the Greater Flamingo nests in The Camargue nature preserve which is... en Provence. So that is a surprising amount of alignment for a theme that was supposed to be completely different! I had no idea there were flamingos in France.

Here is a helpful infographic that compares my colour plans with Bonnie's:

You can see the potential in that magenta halo of Bonnie's! Mine is much lower in contrast, but I hope the teal will still stand out:

The dark and light green flamingos will be joined with other similar shades from my stash. I still plan a scrappy look, with just a few flamingos here and there to tie it together. And I bought some larger pieces, enough for a wide border, of the main print at the top of the page, and this green leafy one:

I want to use all the most electric lime greens that I have, a wide range of pinks and corals, and very cool white backgrounds.

Although, if the first clue involves sewing the light and dark greens together, I will back off those really bright ones, because they drown out the darks. I'm hoping to sew both the light and dark green to the teal. That will look great!

It looks like a few of my Allietare leftovers (in the baggie) will work too. Ten days to go!

And no, Allietare is not finished, and my back is no better, but I am determined that it won't stop me completely. If I can get around half of the clue made each week, I will be happy. I have a lot of border fabric, so that will give me some options.

Who else is in this year?

Save this Space

So, it's been another frustrating and painful week here at Casa Monica. This is the last day to link up with the finale of the Gwennie-Inspired Medallion quilt along. This is where I am:

The theme is "Something Fishy," so it was a great opportunity to repeat the wavy background from the centre block. Fish are also designed and will be appliqued onto the waves. I'm happy with how it's all looking. But, my back is seriously wrecked again, for the third time since the start of the summer, so no progress there. Soon, hopefully!

You can see all the posts on my Gwennie Medallion here, including the finish when it's done.

My One Monthly Goal was to sew the binding on my Cardinal Stars quilt. And, this is where I am:

The hard part is done -- the yellow flange and red binding are both machine sewn to the front, and they are straight too! But, I strained my hand sewing the binding, so I'll have to take it slower. Frustrating! And, when it's done, you'll be able to see the finish here, as well as all the other posts on this quilt.

So, that's it for now. I can't wait to get back on track!

What's Up?

I know I've been MIA for a while, so I've been going through my camera this morning to see what I can share with you all. I've got some "progress" photos on the last round of the Gwennie Medallion, and my new guild challenge fabrics.

First, though, the autumn colours have been particularly good this year:

Outside, everything is looking beautiful. Inside, well...

The final clue for the Gwennie Medallion is "something fishy." My plan for the fishies has been the same since I read the clue. But, I still haven't started them, because I am wrestling with how to handle the corners.

I thought it would be good to carry the diagonal line of the light/dark log cabin layout into the final corners. I've saved this large triangle of background fabric from the basket block in Month 1. Maybe it could be the start of my corner blocks?

I made some strategic cuts.

The all-blue corner was not too bad. Don't ask me why it's so wide. I'm sure I had a reason.

I paired the blue triangles with some solid red to carry out that diagonal line, and built the block out log cabin style, as I did with the bear claws.

Since the project started my plan has been to have a wide solid red border after the final round. The idea with this corner was to transition the diagonal line out into the solid red.

"If I keep adding strips, eventually it will look right," I thought.

"I have to actually put it up on the wall and see how it all looks together," I thought.

Well, yes, those bloody red triangles were horrible, and no amount of building out would fix them.

Then I thought I would put my initials and the date in the corners instead. I unpicked all the blocks so I could re-use the strips for the letters.

I was happy with that plan, but yesterday I realized that another week had passed, and I still hadn't started. Back to the drawing board!

What I've been doing instead is my new guild challenge project. These three fabrics, from the "Charlotte" collection by Deborah Edwards of Northcott, have to be 50% of the quilt top. It's a small project, with a maximum perimeter of 120", (e.g. 30" x 30" (76 x 76 cm)).

The soft, traditional style has felt like a relaxing contrast to all these Gwennie shenanigans, so I've been spending a lot of time on it. Plus, it's due at the end of February, so there isn't a lot of time for deep thought. Unfortunately, I cannot share any progress photos at all, because it will be blind judging.

So, that's what's up with me, Next week may be a busy one, with a little playing around for AHIQ, the Cardinal Stars finish, and maybe the fishies too!