Indigo

After three days of work on my second new project this week, this is what I have to show. They look like they're about to fly away, don't they?

What am I making? A slightly simplified version of this...

Cheddar Broken Dishes is a vintage quilt that was included in the October 2016 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.

I decided to make it based on some dark photos of the magazine that I saw online. There was some debate about that white sashing, but it seems clear to me that with dark beige or tan sashing the quilt will be both warm and elegant. And a cheddar quilt has also been on my list for several years now!

It turned out that in 2015 there was a "Cheddar and Indigo" fabric line from Penny Rose Studio that had all the cheddar, indigo and white fabrics I would need. Of course, I didn't stop there.

But, I did really love the warm white colour of the fabric stock. Between local and online sources I found enough of the four whites in the collection to make the whole quilt.

Most of the indigo in the collection was sold out already. I found the middle one in the clearance bin. The others are indigos from different collections.

At home I found these two in my stash.

And then, not in my stash but in an old project bag stuck in a box of old crockery, I found these treasures! They were meant to become all-indigo, hand pieced log cabins based on a project in Patchwork Tsushin. That did not happen. But, they had a quick wash and now I can't wait to see how they play in the broken dishes.

Ha! Yes, found with dishes, now to become broken dishes blocks.

I mean, seriously, look at this batik! Thank goodness I found it.

The vintage quilt in the magazine was made with 1.25" hsts, but I have enlarged them to 1.5". I have gone back to the same paper piecing method for hsts that I used for Hanami -- see here. 10 dozen are made, around 100 dozen are needed. Yes, 1200, which is less than the 1400 in the original.

Between this project and my other new project, Wild & Goosey, every level surface of my sewing area is covered in triangles. A strong wind would be a disaster! Plus, I think En Provence will finally get to the fancier triangles this week too.

I thought about starting three new projects this week, but for now, I think these two will hold me. I think I can fit in one more post before Christmas, but, if you're taking off now -- Happy Holidays!

New Project Week

Usually I start a bunch of new projects in the spring and fall, something about the change of season, I guess. This year, I was obsessed with Brinton Hall, and I stayed focused on that right through the fall, pretty much.

But now, I cannot stand it any more. My Flamingos en Provence is on hold this week, because I am worried about my white fabrics, and I want to see more before I commit with them. There are several projects that I've been planning for as much as a year, and I've decided that this week I'm going to start every project that has it's own pile of fabric already. I think there are three for now, and one more for January. It seems counterintuitive, but I think they will be less distracting once they are started.

Two of them are Bonnie Hunter designs.

Today's new project is from Bonnie's latest book, Addicted to Scraps (Kansas City Star Quilts, 2016). I bought the book for "Garden Party," which I think is a design that people will still be making in 50 years. And I really like the cover quilt, "Idaho Square Dance." But, the one that completely hypnotized me was "Wild & Goosey:"

I think my first thought was something like "jeepers, no way!" But then the next day I had to read how it was made. And the day after that I wondered about a different colour scheme. And then the graph paper came out and that was pretty much it.

In her introduction Bonnie tells a funny story about her report card from fourth grade, where the teacher wrote, "Bonnie is bright and cheerful, with much potential if only we could contain that extra energy and get her to slow down and focus..." I bet she was the sweetest kid! Quilt guilds are full of high energy people who probably had similar comments in school. I know that I stayed focused only as long as the work was sufficiently challenging, which is quite possibly why I am always expanding my projects! But I think Bonnie's genius is that she makes these really outrageous, densely stitched quilts seem both manageable and reasonable. And once you've done one yourself, you get hooked.

Part of the appeal of Wild & Goosey is that it will use up all the brown and black scraps in my scrap box:

There was a lot of really ugly dark fabric in there, left over from my Hourglass quilt, which was my first attempt to clean out the ugly stuff. In fact (cue the theme from Jaws), right on the bottom of the box...

...was a strip of the dreaded banana fabric!! I really thought that was all gone. But this time I have finally put a good dent in my scrap box. Maybe 2/3 of it is now ironed and rough cut for foundation paper piecing. Maybe 3/4!

Bonnie used a solid yellow in the flying geese sashing strips. I thought it would look good in red, with light-coloured geese instead. Then if the geese in the sashing were light, it looked best if the diagonal geese in the squares were also light. Then one thing led to another and I redesigned the piecing of the squares too. Mainly, I had to do it because I changed the placement of the darks and lights, but also, mine will be less sewing.

Some of the blocks developed their own colour schemes. I love this one! Not my usual colours at all.

There weren't a lot of light fabrics in my scrap box, so in a few places I used the back of the fabric instead. The high contrast black and white fabric on the right is a nice soft grey and white in the block on the left.

The purple gingham in the block above was also used backwards.

There was no fussy cutting of any kind, but there were still some happy accidents, like the three dots here...

...and this perfectly placed daisy. Couldn't do that on purpose if I tried!

Overall, the whole set turned out way, way better than I expected.

They look almost like faceted gems to me. It's much richer than I expected for such a hodgepodge of mostly ratty fabrics. Now I am less sure about the red sashing. Maybe there is still a better choice out there? A slate blue, maybe? A warm caramel? No matter what, I'll probably have to buy something, so I'll look around a bit. One week 'til Boxing Day!

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!