As Green As It Gets

Our household isn't Irish so much of the 'wearin' o' the green' that happens on St. Paddy's Day is sort of lost on us - this is as green as it gets around here today!

But, as luck would have it, yesterday I cut up some scrappy strips in green, teal and mauve for more star blocks so one came together today.

I could have stayed with just green but find that the combination of a few colours in a block makes the stars much more interesting.

Initially it took me some time to get my head around this Homespun block but once I got into it I really took a shine to it (pardon the pun). They finish at 16", which is what the Quilts for Survivors folks like.

This is now four of these blocks that are in the finished column and I have another five cut in greens and pinks.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!....M

Lots of Little Four Patches

As the new year began I didn't really have much traction with a particular project - not that there isn't always a WIP that can be picked up and worked on - but none of them really spoke to me. I just wanted to sew without having to do a lot of thinking, or math. So I picked up my Scraptacular box and continued making tiny square-in-a-square blocks with four patch centres.

Trimmed to 2.5" square, they finish up at 2" and cute as a button!

I'd made tons of the four patches in the fall and once I used up all of the corners for the square-in-a-square bits I did a bit more selective cutting, falling back on prints that I really wanted to see in this quilt.

Some of the centres have matching dark squares and some are mis-matched, like in the photo above.

I'd stitch about a dozen at a time, sometimes more, and then bring them upstairs with me to press and trim when I had a few minutes. It's amazing how quickly they added up.

One day I overdid it with the trimming and sprained my hand so I was out of commission for about a week. Actually, it wasn't the trimming that did it, it was the fact that I was using a ruler that was too small for the task (and probably a blade that was a tad on the dull side) which meant that I was really having to apply pressure to ensure that the piece didn't shift under the ruler. Once I figured that out I was off to the races again.

There's over 450 little blocks in the box now so it's time to start stringing them together in threes with a few setting triangles added in for good measure. Which means that it's decision time on what the setting triangles will be cut from. I've got a few options, just need to make the final choice....M

I'm Slow Today

It's Sunday. It's also the first day after the time change and losing an hour's sleep always slows me down a bit, so time for a little slow stitching.

My Christmas cross stitch is filling in one little bit at a time; the clothesline is half full now.

I'm almost finished the holly leaves and soon it will be time to start on the large white snowflakes at the top of the pattern. Looking at the skein of white that I have, I'm thinking that a trip to the shops will be in order soon as I used up most of it for the first one that I did like this. 

Nothing like a little hand work to slow life down, is there?....M

Light & Dark

Anne made several flimsies for Quilts for Survivors last fall too. This is the first of two that were included in the shipment just before it was sent off in October.

It's a combination of several soft checks in pink, blue and green.

The pattern isn't complicated at all, but when you frame it with a couple of borders it really comes to life.

That pink and white stripe reminds me so much of flannel sheets that we had when we were growing up. There were just a few strong stripes of pink along the top edge of each sheet but it was the perfect colour of pink and they were so warm and cuddly. And I feel that there might have been a green stripe in there too, but I can't be certain.

A second flimsy that she made is much bolder - a completely different feel - but equally fun. SO graphic!

What a great way to use up remnant strips! Any length works and the variety almost makes it an 'I Spy' quilt. It is a testament to never throwing away those leftover pieces.

I love the bright strips that separate each column and am thinking that I need to take a look at my scraps to see if there's enough to get inspired by. Lots of love in both of these flimsies and our quilters really appreciated being able to add them to the delivery....M