Grand Illusion Mystery, another update

I've sewn a few more blocks together and laid them out on the display wall.  I still am not warming to it. 

I've been up and down and round about with this quilt.  I'm going to change it.  Now I'm leaving it the way it was designed - at least it will be finished.  Nope, I'm going to change it.  I seriously can't make my mind up.

I like the individual blocks.  I feel good about them.  They are pleasing to me.  And then I lay them out complete with the sashing, and it just deflates like a balloon.  I just don't like it.

So I took out all the sashings and left the cornerstones.  Immediately it's better.

Now my next dilemma is to decide a/what width to make the sashings, and b/what colour to make the sashings.  I'll have to buy more fabric, I don't have enough.  I guess I could do white homespun, I don't think that white looks awful, do you?

And then what to do with the 2037570 remaining green/white/black strips?  I've tried rearranging them into new blocks and they just don't work with anything.  I'm fairly sure I will have to unpick them, or make them for the back.  

All a dilemma really.  But I'm determined not to put it away with all the other UFO's because it's not going to magically turn into a project I will like six months down the track.  

Shall sleep on it, I think.

Suzie

Some more show and tell….

In the absence of anything productive to show you, I thought you might like to see something my mother did years ago, and also I thought I’d give you a lesson in why you should always buy all your fabrics from the same bolt.

Look at this lovely wall hanging Mum made for a quilt challenge years ago.  I’m pretty sure she didn’t win but she did very well regardless.  There was not a thing wrong with it for years.  But you can see the problem, can’t you?

Yes, those blacks.

One day, we noticed that the blacks were looking different.  It’s horribly pronounced right now, as clear as day.  But back then, we noticed that there was something only slightly off.  Just a hint of a problem.

Over time, we noticed the problem got worse.  I’m not sure if it was fading from the sun, though the quilt hasn’t really been in the full light for many a year.  Or if it’s just the way fabric react over time.

Obviously at the time she made the quilt there was no difference, and the blacks would have all come from her stash.

It’s a shame, really.  And it just goes to show how you can never really trust fabric to act in the way you want it to.  Blacks are ALL different.  I’ve yet to see two different bolts of black with exactly the same colour.  And they will react differently to time and sun and weather changes.

So learn from my mother, and always buy what you need when you need it.  Better still, if you can afford it, buy a whole bolt of black.  Don’t mix and match!

Hopefully I’ll be sewing a little more tomorrow, and I will have something more substantial in Grand Illusion to show you.  (Child free day.  Very quiet happy dance!)

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Grand Illusion Mystery

Nup.  Still not loving it.

I seriously am contemplating not even putting those green checkerboards in.  It does my head in that they don't line up with the chevron blocks.  It must be something in me, I must need straight lines or something because I can't find a happy place with this quilt.  It gives me a headache, literally.  Too busy, too bright, not calm.

Sorry, Bonnie.  Just not my style, this one.

So much to do, I can't decide

I'm all over the place at the moment, I can't seem to find something to settle on.  I've been shuffling boxes around and I'm finding all sorts of stuff I didn't realise was in there.

Sometime last year, I decided that when I made half square triangles, I would use the method where you end up with smaller, spare half square triangles.  So I've been putting them aside and consequently I have a box filled with them. Should I make this up yet?  I'm sure I'll need a million more to make anything special.

And then I've found a whole stack of these left over from another quilt.  Four patches are more difficult for me to use than nine patches, so these are sitting there, waiting for me to have some sort of divine inspiration.  I'm thinking maybe a plain old Jacob's Ladder, it's been a million years since I made one of them.

This is my Quilting Night project.  I take my basket out to quilting once a fortnight and I manage to stitch maybe two or three hexies together.  At this rate, I shall be finished this project in 2084.  I shall reveal it then.

I don't even remember what I was going to make with these hexies.  Maybe a knitting bag?  Because Lord knows I have not got enough bags yet.

See, nine patches are much easier to use.  I've got this lovely little thing half made, and I'm thinking I'm going to do some applique around the outside.  There are so many lovely designs on the net that I may use as inspiration, but for now I think I'll put it back in the bag where it's been living for the most part of a year.

It really needs a good iron. But I've folded it away now and I'll press it when I start on it again.

Yeah, this was for a challenge in 2013.  Fairly sure I won't win that one.

Another chook shed design, all I have to do to this one is quilt it and bind it and wham, bam, thank you Ma'am, it's done.  I shall have to get onto that.

Finally, this lovely hand pieced one shall also be finished in about 2084, given that I make about one block a month.

The moral of the story?  Quit Starting New Stuff and Finish What You Have Going.

We shall see if I can live up to that this year.

Emu View

I was having a clean out of the photos on this laptop when I came across a set of them you may enjoy.

But first, some backstory.  I drove to the town next to us before Christmas to get stuck into doing some of that, and I took my trusty Ipod with me.  My car is newish, and has a plug that you can stick into the Ipod and listen to podcasts and the like.  However, when you stop driving and start again, it doesn’t automatically begin.  You have to unplug and replug the device.  Annoying, but hey – that’s the way it rolls.

So, I started driving from my destination and realised about two minutes into the drive that the Ipod wasn’t working, so I pulled over to plug it in.  I pulled over next to a local business that has, for as long as I remember, had a big nature reserve in front which houses some kangaroos and emus.

I fiddled around with the Ipod, got it working, and then looked out my window:

They are three quarter tame, and were waiting for me to feed them.

Kangaroos are a dime a dozen around here, though you don’t get too close to them.  Emus, while still as common, are not something you see as often and so when you get the chance to take photos of them while they are on one side of a fence and you are on the other – well, you take it!  Normally when these sort of situations happen I don’t have my camera, but as we’ve just discussed, I had my Ipod!  And this day, the photos worked!

I was trying to get a photo of their lovely soft eyes, and faces because I can totally see an art quilt in that.  But I wasn’t so successful.  I took lots of photos, and then when they realised that they weren’t going to get fed, they moved on.

But it made my day. 

Till tomorrow

Suzie

Show And Tell - Very Cute Cot Panel

I can't think of a better name for this panel than 'Very Cute Cot Panel'.  But it suits, don't you think?

This is another one of our old shop samples.  The quickest way to get rid of a bolt of panels in the shop was to quickly quilt one up.  Most times we tried to sell them when the panel was finished, but a lot of the time we ended up with leftovers.

When the sales reps for the fabric company would visit us, they would roll their many suitcases in and we would have access to panel after panel after panel and literally thousands of fabrics to choose from.  It was mind boggling.  We got pretty good at sorting the piles into 'Love it' and 'Don't love it'.  Then from the 'Love it' pile we would sort into 'Can't live without' and 'Can we afford it?'.  There was never enough money to buy all we wanted to, and at the end of the day we were there to pay the rent.  And we had to decide for all our customers, not just for us.  Though of course, our personal opinions made for most of the choices.

It's one of the many things I miss from my shop days -  the thrill when the fabric rep walked into the door.  It was always exciting.

I didn't get to sew today.  It's all been very hot and humid and I spent my day trying to get the house into some sort of order (Ha! Ha!)  I hope to have something vaguely more interesting than old shop panels to show you.

Suzie

Rainbow Stars

So ladies (and gents, if there are any out there), how am I going to finish this quilt up?

It's been sitting on my design wall for months.  Months and months and months.  

I can't find enough colour variations to make different stars.  I tried red, it looked awful.  I've not enough orange.  I've done green, yellow, purple, pink, blue.

I guess I could make more of the same, but that makes ten blocks and I'm trying to make an even number of colour combos.

You know when you start something and you just think 'I'll just let the quilt go where it wants to?'.  Well, this is one quilt that has lost its way.

Could I make a rainbow effect?  Maybe.  Maybe I'll go play with EQ7 for a bit and see what jumps out at me. 

Answers on a postcard, please!

Grand Illusion Mystery - an update

I'm sorry for the not so brilliant photos.  I'm trying to work out how take quick photos with my Ipod and it's not being so successful just yet.

I stitched up late last night trying to avoid any mention of the horrible stuff happening in France.  Stitching is very, very good diversion, I find.

I had a good run really and so far my blocks are all coming together.  Still not loving it.  Just not my cup of tea at all

The colours are lovely, but the design - not my cup of tea.  Still, once its all together I'm sure it'll be lovely.

I've been sewing all afternoon at quilt group making a charity quilt and I'm very, very weary.  Perhaps I should have an early night.  

Till tomorrow

Suzie