Original plan or new idea?

I had a new idea for an old project and decided to put it on the wall to help me decide. These bear claw blocks were received in a birthday block swap a few years ago.

The original plan was to make appliqué four of the tulip blocks. Lately, under the influence of Erin Russek's Jingle Bell blocks and started thinking about enlarging a block (or four of the blocks) from that quilt to use as alternate blocks.

  

You can see all of the Jingle Bell blocks on Erin's blog, One Piece at a Time HERE.  If I go this route, I'll have to decide if I'll use one pattern for all four appliqué blocks or one each of the four appliqué blocks with cardinals. 

Usually when a new design opportunity presents itself for something in progress–or in this case, parked until I am ready to appliqué all those leaves–I am attracted to the new shiny idea for a while, but usually stick with the original plan.  How about you? 

I'm joining the Design Wall Monday list on the Patchwork Times blog.  Check it out to see what other quilters are up to. 

Photographing Big Quilts

This is the first time in a long time that I live in a space that allows me to hang and photograph big quilts. I keep telling myself I need to take advantage of the space and take photos of a couple quilts I've made that were never really photographed and documented.

Wild Pansy is the big (100 inches square) bed quilt that I (finally) finished and added the binding last night. It was quilted by Coreen Strzalka of That's my Quilt, days before I left Michigan.  I packed it away and it has been stored in one place or another until this week. 



It was made from scrappy Buckeye Beauty blocks (with purple used in the triangles) swapped long ago and far away.

Here are some detail photos, showing the scrappy purple binding, a single block, and some quilting details.

   

   

56 Shades of Gray ... and more Goodies from the Post office

It's so much more fun to go to the post office when you come home with fabric and other quilty goodness.

I participated in the Shades of Gray fabric charms swap–my first fabric swap in years.

It reminded how, when I first began to quilt, I joined many, MANY fabric swaps in online groups.  It was a great way to build a scrappy stash and I still have a few of the many 4-inch wide-of-fabric (WOF) strips, 10-inch squares, fat eighths and fat quarters swapped so long ago.

I gave up my swap-a-holic ways long ago, but since I didn't have much variety in the gray fabrics in my stash, when I saw the shades-of-gray swap, I saw an opportunity to enrich my collection.

Here's the stack of 56 charm squares that I sent  and the 56 shades of gray that were returned to me–I'm not sure they'll sit in my stash for long ... I keep thinking of things to do with them.

Also in my post box were the patterns below, won in a giveaway on Glen's blog, Quilts and Dogs.

I love Edyta Sitar's patterns and I love these tulips–I'm thinking wall-hanging to be ready to hang next Spring.  The Hula Hoops pattern looks like a great pattern when a large quilt is needed quickly. Thank you Glen.

A Hint for Diane

I'm playing catchup with Kate's Birthday Block swap. I finished Diane's block today (for a very belated December birthday).

It will go into the mail tomorrow, but I couldn't resist this little in progress shot. The color isn't great (those really are two purple fabrics and a buttery colored background.

That's a quarter on top of the dark square in the lower right corner, to give you an idea of the size of these tiny bits.

I really love this kind of swap. It's fun to make one special block for each birthday girl.

Before & After

Swapping fabrics is one of the most fun ways to build a stash. I started swapping fabrics online almost as soon as I started quilting. I swapped 4-inch strips, 10" squares, Fat Eighths and Fat Quarters.

These are the FQs I sent for Teresa's recent swap of Amish Solids FQs . . . and look at the rainbow of fabrics I received in return.

I joined this swap, once again, to begin to build a stash, this time of solid fabrics. It's a great start, isn't it?

12 times 3 is (not) 48

Last weekend I finally started on my blocks for Kate's half-square-triangle sampler swap. I started with the black and red blocks, so that I could include Kate and Michelle's blocks with the sets of June lotto blocks they won.

Each of the sawtooth square blocks contains 12 HST units and one large one ... I started doing the math and realized I'd be making 260 HSTs by the time I'd finished my blocks for the swap. It was daunting ... so much so that when I started making HSTs for the three red blocks, I multiplied 12 times 3 and came up with 48 ;-)

After recovering from that mistake, I proceeded to sew right side to wrong side when making the pink block, decided I was too distracted and put the blocks away until today.

Things in the studio went smoother today ... and I'm happy to report my new status: 169 HSTs done, 91 HSTs (in blue and neutral) to go.





With each color I find myself saying, I wish I would have decided on this colorway ... these are going to be very pretty quilts, I think.