Finally!

Well, Miss P's time has finally come. The blocks have been sitting at the end of the small ironing board that is to the right of my sewing table, most of them for the better part of a year, and I've had a few on a small design wall behind it to enjoy as I worked on other stuff. After the Homespun stars came down off the wall I wasted no time in putting them up before some unsuspecting squirrel butted into line.

There wasn't a lot of thinking, I just wanted to get them up and then see what might need to be moved around. LUV. My design wall is wider than it is tall so I've been having to crane my neck to imagine what it will look like vertically, but I am really liking what I see. And it also received high praise from The Official Cookie Tester, so that was good too.

It has had a bit of time to 'steep' which has allowed for the odd block twirl or switch-up to ensure that all of the darker backgrounds are well distributed. The one block that is giving me a bit of grief is the deep purple in the upper right corner, and it has since the day that I sewed it. I feel that it's just too dark. In hindsight, I probably would have been smarter to make the background on it in a lighter fabric so that it didn't carry so much weight. I'll live with it for now but if it really starts to bug me I might just make a replacement.

Time to start stitching!....M

Homespun Happiness

Often when I'm closing in on a finish the blocks stay up on the wall for seemingly forever, but not this time!

I wasn't thrilled with having to pin all of the connecting seams in these Homespun blocks, but there were stretches that allowed for a good 6 - 8" straight run so I just decided that a little patience would get me a long way. And so it did.

Happy, happy, happy! Once it came upstairs into the natural light I liked it even more than I did while working on it. All of those bright colours just make me happy. 

I'm still really happy with my decision to stagger the blocks.

I like it so much that it has me wondering if this one will stay at home, but I have some time to think about that.

The remainder of this mauve was made into a binding right away. Love using up a piece of fabric.

It needs a good press and then it will be ready for quilting.

On to Miss P!....M

Homespun is Getting Close to Coming Off the Wall

My mission to clear the design wall continues. Remember back in January when I started playing with the scrappy Homespun stars? Well, I just kept playing with them off and on. 

I really enjoy the pattern and liked seeing the result of new colour combinations.

Slowly they added up to enough for another Quilts for Survivors flimsy, but how to lay them out? I had just made blocks in colours that I liked with no real plan, and when I started to lay them out I wasn't that keen on butting them up squarely to each other. Ah, the joys of just starting to sew without a plan!

How about staggering them? I liked that. 

So I ripped two blocks into halves, and made a few more half blocks to fill in the gaps along the top and bottom.

But there is still the question of colour placement. I tried transitioning from pink to yellow to green to blue but ultimately decided that it wasn't working for me. 

So on a whim I nestled all of the pink/yellow blocks in the centre and moved the blues and greens to the top and bottom, and I liked that. Stay tuned!....M

Anne Made a Happy Flimsy, Too

Great progress has been made on cleaning off my design wall so that I can move on with Miss P, but before I go there I'll share another Happy flimsy for Quilts for Survivors, this time made by Anne.

She started with the pretty black print that's at the centre of each block and then added a couple of coordinating reds, a green and a white, all from her stash.

I expected it to look very Christmassy, given all of the red and green, but it doesn't. It's bright and fresh and I think the black helps on that front too.

I've said it before and will likely say it again: this is such a great charity quilt pattern because the blocks comes together so quickly. It's basically the first step in a Log Cabin pattern. And it can be made in any number of sizes. Mine were closer to 16" blocks but I think that these are 12", and no need to add borders given that we are working to provide lap quilts. She just finished it off with the same black sashing strips.

If memory serves me correctly, there will be five versions of this pattern in our bundle this year - I've made two, Anne made one, and Jean has made two (not sure that I've shown you Jean's, but they are lovely). There's still a few months to go before we ship our donation so who knows, there might be more happiness on the way....M