A busy week and start to Easter!

I have been doing a lot of pottering... a bit of this, a bit of that... cutting out a new block, or choosing fabric combinations... checking out new patterns... reminding myself I'm not supposed to be starting anything new, a bit of FMQ and back to sewing blocks.

Pulling out my Theres a Square in There for a bit more FMQ meant finally deciding what was going to go in the sashing.

I knew I was going to break up the area with random shapes, but hadn't decided exactly what was going to fill them... until this combination of spiral and pebbles occurred and I love it.

Each block is the same size... but because some blocks have the background colour around the edge, it means it blends in with the sashing... making the blocks look different sizes.  Quilting over all the background and sashing with the same pattern reinforces this.  I have almost got this first quarter done... WOOHOO!

Block Four of the Cloudy Day Sampler is done... another cool block in a fun mix of scraps.

And I have made excellent progress on my Nordic Star quilt compilation.  I had always got stuck on how to reinvent the proportions of the original pattern considering my elements were different.

Just using my ruler I measured the picture in the book to work out that the top section made up half the quilt.  Bam!  That was the key measurement and the rest has just fallen into place.  Why did this not happen 7 years ago?

And on to the progress... the top row of pluses is attached to the light and dark strips, and the wider light strip and the rectangle strip.  Next is to add a light strip to the lower rectangle strip then I can concentrate on the bottom row of pluses.  Many of the widths chosen have reference to other areas of the quilt... an important consideration when designing.

I bought the Iris quilt pattern because it seemed a perfect match to a bundle I had played around with.  A quiltalong is happening on Instagram and week 2 is to concentrate on cutting.  I think I have the layout sussed...

And cutting has commenced.  The construction is similar to the Trip Around the World quilt which sews strips into tubes before subcutting and opening seams.

And my last new time waster is based on The Proverbial Quilt by Denyse Schmidt.  I have chosen some song lyrics... and a bit of a rainbow layout... more scraps... and just winging it.

... and so the first word is done!  I decided to approach the project in order, rather than doing all of one letter as recommended, as I have a variety of colours throughout the quilt, and any efficiency gained by doing repeat letters was immediately lost by doing different colours.

I also got the first 6" block finished for the Summer Sampler 2017 for this month.