Color Inspiration

Good morning friends!  How are you? We're in the middle of cool spell here, low 80s, and I'm enjoying every minute of it.  The windows are open and the breeze is blowing thru my house. We're still in the midst of the work being done around here, so it's chaotic, and I've not done much in the way of sewing.  My sewing and cutting spaces are more our of control than normal, and my brain can't take it.  Remember those old fashioned tile games?  I feel like this is what's going on in my house.  I have one open square and I'm moving everything in and out of it constantly. 

It won't be long now, maybe 2 or 3 weeks? At least I hope that's all.  Cross your fingers for me. 

 

In the meantime, I had cut out a watering can block before it all started so one day I sat and stitched that up. It's fun choosing the watering can fabrics but I need to be careful to not fall into same trap as when I sew on those random sew alongs.  I  make a bunch of cute blocks but they look like a hot mess together.  The only thing that I find to be a mildly annoying is that the cutting instructions for the background is for a single block, and the pattern shows all blocks are using the same background.  I thought about using all different backgrounds but I'm just not organized enough right now for that. In the future though I am going to do something with a bunch of different backgrounds (low volume) because I have a wonderful collection that I ordered from Sharon.

 

I also ordered the BOO! Ghost pattern from The Pattern Basket. Margot has such  clever blocks. Same as with the watering cans, the cutting instructions are for 1 block, and I'm using all one background fabric as shown in the pattern, so I need to calculate cutting for all blocks at once.  I find that to be more efficient when one using one background.  Anyway I'll get over  it and JUST DO IT but I guess I want to gripe a little bit.  I would never let this stop me from buying these patterns and her quilt instructions are well written so please don't think this is a big deal or that I'm on  a rant. Margot puts a lot of work into her patterns and I appreciate her great designs.  I'm just lazy.

 

But back on track, I'm making the ghosts out of the prints above and some I will add when I can find the fabric in my stash. Frankie has wanted a ghost quilt forever, but she's a pastel Halloween girl so I'm really making a leap here, but I have some color inspiration people I'm going to link to so you see what I'm talking about. 

 

First off there's Jessica.  When I was making my big foot quilt I wish I'd seen this version Jessica made.  I  made all my trees green and it's ok, but I love hers with the colorful trees.  She makes a lot of really great things, so check her out. Her quilt encourages me to step outside the box.

 

Next up is Erica, I'm sure you already know her, but if not check out her Instagram feed.  I love her rainbow colors, her garden, her sweet Creamie and how she lives her color palette.  I find everything there so charming. 

 

My ghost quilt is inspired by the colors in this photo, this photo and this one. Those cups in the last photo are the same type as the cups we had in our old camping trailer.  We had matching bowls, I think they were give aways from somewhere.  I see them and they always give me a good feeling, why I don't buy one or two, who knows.  They do make me happy.  And while we're talking about vintage camping, check out this feed. I love all her photos of her little trailer, which looks like the one we had in the late 50s early 60s.  Ours was pastel blue and white, but the inside looks very much like hers.  I love her colors and her joyful ways, and her cute dog Johnny.

 

ANYWAY YAKKITY YAK. That's what's up with me.  What's up with you? Is it still summer or has fall crept in?  I am seeing a lot of fall decorating already on IG but there's a lot of summer left around these parts. Hope things are good with you. xop

Happy 40th Anniversary Olfa!

Good morning friends!  Today is my day in the Olfa  Quilt Along.  I am so excited to be included in this event with so many great quilters.   I can still remember the day in 1987, when I first saw the Olfa Cutter.  I was on maternity leave pacing my house and watching  PBS.  I have always loved sewing and quilting seemed like it would be so much fun, but the thought of cutting all those pieces with scissors was way out side my patience level.  Kaye Wood came on tv and she was cutting out pieces for a quilt using a rotary cutter and it was like the voices of a thousand angels singing. Before I knew it was gripping  a yellow Olfa cutter in my  hand and I never looked back. 

 

Do you own a Ruby cutter or any of the wonderful Splash cutters?  I love my Ruby Red cutter, you know I love red.  That Ruby Red cutter on the new Navy True Blue mat would be sensational.  But I digress.

 

The assignment was to create a block using the Splash colors to include in a sampler quilt.  I got out my Splash cutters (yes, I have them all!) and went to my stash and pulled some fabric, and waited for some inspiration to hit. 

 

 

This is my block, Judges Favorite.  I think the Olfa Rotary Cutters, rulers and self healing mats are my favorite and most important tools for quilting and basically any sewing or crafting I do. They'll always win a prize ribbon from me!  Couple them with the circle cutter, the utility knife, little touch knives, scissors... well they are indispensable tools.

Here's the whole quilt and isn't it great! You can head over to this post to get started on the quilt if you haven't already checked it out! You can find the gallery of blocks here. I can't live without my Olfa Rotary Cutter and I bet you can't either!  Thanks Olfa, for including me in your Quilt Along Project!!  I'm so happy to be a part of the celebration!

 

 

 

Patchwork Picnic

Morning friends! How are you?  Today we're on a happy sew along with Gracey Larson and her new book Patchwork Picnic. I've been following Gracey on Instagram for quite a while and I enjoy her whimsical patterns, you might recall the popcorn pillow I made for Bret some time ago.  Her patterns are so detailed and believe it or not they're all traditionally pieced!

 

 

The book is so cute, it has 30 picnic themed blocks and instructions to put them together into a sampler quilt, as well as some other fun projects, including a table runner, potholder and packing pouches. 

 

The blocks come in two sizes, six and twelve inches. In typical Martingale fashion, the instructions and illustrations are great.  These blocks are cute and you can use them in Gracey's projects, or add them to  your own project designs. 

Today I'm showing off my  little bluebird block.  Cute right?  In her introduction, Gracey talks about fabric and using bits and pieces of your collection.  So in that theme I went shopping in my fabric and pulled out some pieces that I love to make this little potholder, a pattern project in the book. 

 

 

This potholder has a handy little pocket to slide your hand into on the back.  It's bound like a quilt and I like that a lot.  I never hang my potholders so I left off the little loop.  Its a fun addition to my potholder collection and a sweet reminder of friendships made on Instagram. 

 

This book is very cute and would make a charming addition to your sewing library.

 

Thanks to Gracey for inviting me to sew along with her new book, thanks to Martingale for sending me an e-copy of the book.  Book photos are courtesy of Martingale, taken by the great Brent Cane.