Picking fabrics!

One of my favourite parts about starting a new project is selecting the fabric. I used to like to use fabrics from the same line or designer so that everything would just "go" but a year or so back, I wanted to get away from that and start combining a wide variety of fabrics in my projects. I am going to Portland next week to attend Quiltmaker's Block Party event and I have been getting myself organized for the various classes I will be taking. As it happens, my daughter would like me to make a quilt for a friend of hers who is getting married next year. Okay, really, it's more like "do you want me to make Mady a quilt?" because seriously, I'm always looking for a reason to make another project! Anyway, my daughter happily agreed and through some skillful surveillance (aka texting her friend) she determined her friend likes green and purple as a colour scheme. How fortuitous that Pink Castle's January Stash Stack Club had been purple, so I had a great stash on hand to select from. My project calls for 25 fat quarters and as it happened, I had fat quarter of a green and purple Michael Miller print to inspire me and in about ten minutes time, I had a nice stash of fabric ready to go.

The inspiration print is visible along the top of the photo, peeking out from under the fat quarters. I am quite happy with this stack; there are a couple of repeats (Oval Elements and Quilter's Linen) but other than that, the variety looks good to me.

One of the tricks I used to help in the fabric selection was to reference the coloured dots printed on the selvedge. This is a great tip I picked up from Jeni in her Art of Choosing series and I use it frequently. Here is a closeup of the dots:

You will notice there is no grey in the print itself; I was a couple fabrics short and decided to throw in a couple of neutrals. I like how the grey fabrics look with this palette. They look like spring, don't they? Good! Because I hear we're going to have snow again tomorrow so a little bit of spring colour in the sewing room is most welcome. All I have to do now is start cutting them up for class!

Chat soon.

e.

Spiderwebs and sunshine!

The sun was out yesterday! Yay! I was very excited. It is trying to peek it's way out today, as well. I love the sunshine and blue skies we typically have in this neck of the woods. Even when it's -35 outside in the winter the sky (usually) looks great!

It wasn't that cold here yesterday, however, which was good because I was excited to be able to take a half decent photo of my March do.Good Stitches blocks. Laura is our fearless leader this month and she requested spiderweb blocks based on this tutorial in a palette of navy, purple, and bits of raspberry.

I don't have a lot of navy although it is a colour I quite like. I did manage to scrounge up enough scraps to complete these blocks. This was my first time making a spider web block and I was happily surprised to learn they are not very difficult at all. I was also very grateful to have recently received my January Stash Stack Club shipment from Pink Castle, which provided me with a good purple stash to work with.

Family dinner tonight with all the kids - looking very much forward to it.

Happy Sunday, everyone.

e.

10 little stars (WIP Wednesday)

Between the red and green stars and the (freshly fallen!) snow you might think this is a Christmas post. It isn't, at least, not yet. The stars are going to become part of a larger quilt called "Wish Upon a Star" and I am making it in a Christmas colour palette. But it won't be finished for a long time. I am working on it as part of a BOM rehab taking place in my online quilt group. The pattern isn't really intended as a BOM but it is a sampler-type quilt, so it easy enough to break down. I purchased the pattern intending to make the quilt up in traditional, Civil War repro-type fabrics but I am actually making it using my contemporary fabric stash. I'm excited to see how "traditional" block patterns come out in today's prints.

As for the snow? We live in Alberta...we just have to wait for 15 minutes for the weather to change.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday!

e.

Hibernating

Oh, hi, is it spring yet? Not really, judging by the blizzard going on outside today. Actually, it has been really nice here (for winter) the past couple of months so even though today's weather was weird (even by our standards), I don't have anything to complain about.

Except bad picture weather. Or bad picture light. Whatever it is. I have a few small bits and pieces to get pictures of but I need sun to cooperate at a time when I'm not busy (I can't blame it all on the sun).

Today, however, I made an exception and snapped a picture inside the house. The reflection from all the snow outside was bright enough to make it work okay, I think. Except I went to find my camera and of course, it wasn't charged, so I whipped out my trusty phone and captured the following:

This is the completed (yay!) wedding quilt for daughter #2 who was married back in November. She came over to pick it up but promised me we could take it outside for a nicer photo when the weather improves - she was just so excited to know it was done and wanted to be able to take it home right away. I have to admit, it is really nice knowing she is so excited to receive it. The pattern is from Out on a Limb designs and I have had it on hand since 2004. My girls and I saw the quilt hanging in a shop when we were out of town visiting family that summer and I purchased the pattern, intending to use it to make a quilt for my bed. You know how that goes....

Anyway, about two years ago youngest daughter asked when I was going to get around to making her quilt and I wondered what on earth she was talking about? Turns out she thought I had purchased the pattern to make the quilt for HER! Hmm....I didn't (and still don't) recall that conversation but since I hadn't gotten around to making it, I figured why not. She wanted a very traditional palette and was inspired by the first French General collection, Rouenneries.

I started to collect fabrics for it but it took awhile as it was a very large quilts and then of course there are always other projects cropping up, calling for my attention - and I am usually only too happy to give them my attention! The quilt is very large and she wanted a wide variety of prints but eventually, I had accumulated enough fabric right about the time she got engaged last year. She told me then she wanted it as her wedding quilt. It wasn't finished on time but she knew that was going to be the case. I picked it up from the machine quilter on Friday and finished handsewing the binding on this afternoon. Oh, I should mention, it is a BIG quilt, measuring in at 88" x 106" - I am so thankful for the efforts of the lady who quilted this for me!

It's nice to be out of hibernation.

e.