A new adventure

 An extra couple of weekends and I finished the Plus/Cross border on the Aviatrix Medallion.  It has a real glow about it... especially on this particularly gloomy and overcast day.  The next border is a log cabin round and I have decided to work on some other projects and tackle this one next month.

I signed up for a new BOM with my LQS - The Country Yard.  This is called The Scrappy Star Quilt Adventure, the gist of it being you receive four fat 1/8th of coloured fabric and a fat 1/4 of background fabric... plus instructions... each month.  Exactly what you choose to do with your fabric and instructions is up to you.  This was a challenge I couldn't resist.

The first month's fabrics... and the instructions for a Saw Tooth star, in 6", 9" and 12" sizes.  Month one also had some suggestions for final layout just incase you're the kind of person who needs to know this.

My first reaction was to look through my stash to see what fit the flavour of the fabric in this months pack.  I felt like this light blue patterned fabric gave a new feel to the fabrics... a little bit more contemporary, and brought in the possibility of more colours, while still creating a link with the original colours.

Then it was a hit and miss trial of more fabrics...

And more... decisions about whether it created too much variety... like was it too different?... or did it still feel cohesive?  These were the easier additions... somewhat neutrals... greyish blues and a soft mustard.

And these were more difficult... something to match the rust fabric, and some darker notes... I must admit that I am waiting to see what other fabrics are in the next few months before I get too carried away with adding these darker fabrics.

And some low volume options.

The background in the pack is quite cream, with a white print.  I have quite a lot of this text print, which is an off-white, with a beige print similar to a watermark underneath the black text.  I think this adds a lot of flexibility... tying into the cream without being a perfect match.

Looking closely at the neutrals featured in the navy print... there are some lovely neutral tones... hence that pale mustard and also some greyish and blue prints.

Here you can see how the different prints relate... to me they make sense.

And the first block!  This one is just 6" and uses a small wonky log cabin using various scrap low volumes that I have had lying around my sewing room for the last few months and just happened to be around the right size.

Then a couple of 12" blocks...

And another 6" block.

I used some of the offcuts to mock up some filler blocks just to get a feel for it.  At this stage I'm just going to make blocks and see what happens.  These blocks really play with value placement - it has been a fun day of sewing!

I'm wondering if I should set myself some rules for each month.

Ideas could be:

* Using a improv scrap centre for one block

* Using at least one print from the pack in each block

* Having at least one block that doesn't use the background print from the pack

* Adding a variation to the block design (eg the corner squares in the yellow block)

I will have to wait and see what month two reveals.

New job... new me!

 It's been a bit of an exhausting few weeks, as i have recently left my old job (where I started working some 17 years ago - OMG leaving your job is hard) and have moved to a new full time job.  For those of you who know me, you'll remember that my personal sewing time has always been in the afternoons between school finishing and meal prep time.  Swapping to a 40 hour week and longer travel time means I don't have this time free... and it's going to take a while to figure out my new normal.  My new routine.  However, I am loving my new job and look forward to each day... so I am sure that the sewing will fall into place also.  These things take time.

My Aviatrix medallion is slowly growing.  From the amended border three...

To the start of border four...

And I suppose this is the situation that has always put me off about this quilt... the bigger borders need a lot of piecing.  A lot of piecing!  There are 20 star blocks in this round and it's taken me a whole week to get these 5 pinky/purple ones sewn.  I'm hopeful to get a bit more momentum on this as the week progresses.

Missing in action

 February disappeared in a whoosh of activity and not too many ticks on the monthly goal setting to do list.

I filled in some empty space with some FMQ designs...

Just to recap, I got month 2 of Orbiter done, the Stitch Pink top together, the Hop Skip baby quilt quilted and binding machined on, 9 more Scrappy Lines blocks and I pretty much kept up to date with the Aviatrix and Flea market flowers sew alongs.  Finally, I got the Transire quilt basted probably on the very last day!  Plenty didn't get a look in and I need to remember next year that February is a short month.

My March goals included finishing off the Hop Skip binding... DONE and before I can do my final check off marks on my huge list of everything... it needs to be officially blogged!

Are these giraffes on the back not the cutest?

A wiggly quilting design on the blue sections and a square design  on the squares.  It's simple and just works.

All folded up ready for its trip to Australia for a special new grand daughter called Shelby.

The other main project for March has been the beginning of The Aviatrix Medallion, pattern by Elizabeth Hartman and was a popular quiltalong a few years ago.

Part of the reason why I never started this pattern was this centre block and all those little diamonds.  Not my thing!  I combined the solids from the kit with some complementary prints and I'm really happy with the interest and depth it adds.

I managed to get the first section sewn relatively successfully... so it was just a matter of moving onto the next section...

And the next...

Then add the background sections and *hold your breath and cross your fingers* while the sections got pieced into one unit.  DONE!

This may be the most successful centre I have ever done!  

Then the next week was a much simpler construction with a half square triangle border.  Again, I strayed from the pattern instructions and made a much more orderly combination of black and white prints matched with a soft Essex Linen background.

Flea Market Flowers

 Progress has been steady on the project inspired by the Flea Market Flowers quilt along designed and run by Lori Holt.

I'm describing this as an improv applique project as nothing is over thought... it's quick quirky imperfect applique designs and quick fabric selections.

The blocks so far...

And how it's looking on the design wall... the blocks are large so are challenging my background fabric stash... might need to do some joins on some blocks.

And just to give a bit of scale... the whole design wall at the moment.  I am slowly adding blocks to the Brightly collection.

It's all about BALANCE

 The beginning of February saw the start of a new challenge - work on WIP's only for 50 days. It's not that long... I can do it... I think :o)

January saw the start of a few new projects... the Winterberries sewalong from the last post, and the Flea Market Flowers applique quilt along... This is a project by Lori Holt and to follow the instructions you need her templates/ruler (which I don't have)... so I am using the general block layouts and using flower and leaf designs from a different book.  Progress so far

At which point I ran out of fusible web so currently waiting for more to turn up in the post.

Despite the distractions I have been focusing on the Stitch Pink 2020 sampler blocks this month and this has resulted in a finished quilt top!

I added plain sashing with cornerstones to the 12" blocks, a plain border, then a gingham border, then a thin black border, and then... a wider border using a stash floral which is a perfect match to the block colours!  A win for the stash!

The border floral was always a bit difficult to use... the grey a bit too brown for other projects and the lighter flowers were always either too white or too cream.  They are just perfect this time!!

I have also finished the quilting on one of the baby quilts under construction... and got the binding machine stitched on... now to just hand sew it on the back.

I have committed (in my head if nowhere else) to a group sewalong of the Elizabeth Hartman quilt Aviatrix Medallion.  This is a project I had purchased a kit and pattern... about 4 or so years ago (maybe longer) - then I used some of the materials to make the Patchwork City quilt... and even though this quilt is not technically started as at 1.2.21 - I am going to allow myself to start it when the sewalong starts on Valentines Day.  My reasoning is that I've had it for so long it doesn't really count... and it's a difficult start, so I really need the power of group support to get the first few rounds sorted out.  Once it's started, I am quite happy to just plod along with the simpler and larger rounds of blocks.

What goals do you have for this year?