New Project, New Plan

If you didn't already know, 2017 will mark Canada's 150th birthday. I think every quilter on the planet will know soon enough, because the deluge of red & white and maple leaf-themed quilts has already started!

So far, I've managed to stick with my own projects. In January my plan is to pull out these maple leaf blocks from 2014...

...and do something improv-y with them. I already have a fun idea. Or, maybe I should say that was my plan. Thanks to that horrible temptress Quilter Kathy, today I finally laid eyes on the full layout for the 150 Canadian Women quilt along, which I'd been avoiding, and which you can see here.

The decision process was very fast! Yes, two months ago I said that I was done with BOMs and quilt alongs, but you know, I hope I can also recognize a good thing when I see it. This quilt will be a classic.

So, while this was my nice easy plan for today, the last seam on the last units for Week 2 of En Provence...

...instead I went down to my stash in search of a suitable creamy background fabric. This was right on top...

...and so was that scruffy pink piece, so I grabbed that too. I knew the cream fabric was perfect right away. Why?

BUTTERFLIES!

Yes, there's still one day left in the Kaleidoscope of Butterflies link up, and I have a butterfly-shaped hole in my line up right now, because I really haven't been able to hand stitch since my back went out in October. So this should keep me going for a while. Please check out the much better butterfly and kaleidoscope photos that everyone else in the link up has posted!

I have enough of this fabric to do all the block backgrounds as well as the sashing, but before I even climbed up all the stairs I knew that using just one background would be too flat for me. I love the depth I managed to get in my first quilt, the nine patch, by using a wide range of backgrounds, some lighter and some darker than the setting fabric. That will be the plan again, and a really wide range of "reds" to go with them.

I started with my Allietare leftovers (good reds!), and then pulled in some other scraps from the bin:

This really was a very enjoyable day. My goal was to make three blocks, and I made seven. With all those scraps in front of you, it's fun to see what looks good together, and how much you can squeeze out of that last tiny piece.

It looks a little grey in the photos, but there is quite a yellow tinge to the background fabric, so I will probably stay on the warm side with my reds. I'm hoping to bring in a little of everything -- modern, traditional, 30s reproductions, batiks...maybe Christmas too. Why not? With luck the blocks will reflect whatever else I am sewing at the time. And I'm going to make an effort to use real scraps from the bin, not yardage.

150 blocks, 3 blocks per week. The patterns are free for two weeks, and you will find them here. The designer, Kathryn Wilson Tucker, has named each block for a pioneering Canadian woman, and includes a brief history with each pattern. They make interesting reading! I sincerely hope she will be able to get a book deal for the quilt sometime this year. It would be great to keep the book along with the quilt. When it's done!

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.

Last Two

The last minute work on Allietare continues!

One...

Two...

...and the setting triangles are finished too!

So, all the individual blocks are now done. Next step, sew them together.

That's probably what I'll start on today. We had another easy clue for En Provence yesterday. Somehow, these easy clues seem less urgent! But, I'm sure it could catch up on me if I let it go.

I guess if I was really organized I could be doing the En Provence clue as Leaders & Enders... Well, no, actually, I'm pretty sure I'm going to paper piece the triangles in clue #2. I have the Tri Recs ruler, which I just bought specially for this quilt, but I think paper piecing will be less cutting strain. We'll see!

Anyway, have a great weekend!

Two More

I'm still counting down my last Allietare blocks.

One...

Two...

And halfway through the setting triangles!

Two blocks left!

Two...

I'm still plugging away at Allietare. One...

I love how that taupe Star Flowers fabric in the middle almost disappears.

I do try to enjoy the details. There's no question that all the attention to detail I gave this quilt slowed down the process. But, it doesn't hurt to remind myself that this is a hobby for fun, not a job.

Even if I do have to put myself on a schedule once in a while!

Two...

Four left.

I must finish this flimsy! So, I'm going to count down the remaining blocks.

I'm really getting keen to see it together! There have been so many great Allietare finishes around the blogosphere this week. It's time to get mine done too!

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!