Mile a minute and cheddar

I continue to be fascinated by Mile a Minute - I think it's both for the colours and the fact that it makes something from (nearly) nothing!  Because I accept scraps from anyone, it's doubly interesting, as fabrics from other people's stashes are always a lot more interesting than from your own!  I am teaching a class on MAM later this year, so wanted to make up a few samples. 

I have made this design before, but still love it.  The star is from Victoria Finlay Wolfe's book '15 Minutes of Play' although the setting etc is mine.  The yellow is nice and gutsy and provides a good foil for the scrappiness.  Next I tried a different idea from Victoria's book.

This is a work in progress.  I love making these blocks too, and have been looking through my solids for possible X fabrics.  Not sure how this will go, but maybe a cascade of colours from top left - pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue purple - and then a MAM border.  We'll see.

And I have been keeping up with my Stars in a Time Warp blocks.  The latest fabric was cheddar.  I've never been exactly sure what colour cheddar fabric is, and now I find it's exactly the colour of the cheddar cheese in my fridge - yellow orange!  I couldn't believe that I had the correct colour in my stash, and was able to make the stars straightaway. 

The left hand one is my reproduction (looking more orange than in reality) and the right my modern one.  I love that purple and cheddar spot : why didn't I buy the bolt?! 

Tula Pink

This morning there was some talk about Tula Pink and her book '100 Modern Quilt Blocks' and I remembered that I had a set of blocks waiting in my challenge group bag, waiting to be put together.  When I looked them out, I found these gorgeous blocks which Debbie made and generously donated to Project Linus.  Aren't they pretty?

(One of the reasons she donated them is that she had hand pieced them, and discovered they were all slightly different sizes!  Machine pieced blocks can be trimmed, but not hand pieced ones!  No problems.  I'll frame them all and trim the frames to the same size!)

And here are mine.  I had intended them to be for Linus in the first place, so used some child-friendly fabrics.  I have 36 blocks, which when sashed will make a great quilt.  Off to look for some pale blue fabric!

Lots of things

I have had quite a bit of chance for sewing this week (DH has been to 2 football matches, so I've had extra 'me' time!). As usual, I have been doing various different things. 

I've got the main part of my Grand Illusion together. 

I have some of the border components sewn together, but am thinking I might have a plain border instead.  I'll probably go with the yellow inner border, then turquoise?  We'll see.

Next are my challenge group blocks for this year.  The theme is 'one block quilts'.  Not a good one for me, as I get bored so easily.  So when I saw that Barnara Brackman was doing a challenge called 'Stars in a time warp' using the same sawtoothed star block, but making it a masterclass in the history of fabric, I decided to do that!  There is a different fabric theme each week. 

First there was Turkey red.  The star at the bottom is my historical one, with the one at the top a modern one.  I've decided to make two quilts, using the same themes each week.  

Next was Prussian blue.  I'm not sure I nailed this one, as I find it difficult to see the difference between Prussian and indigo blues.  Ah well, it's a journey. 

Next is shirtings, and the one on the left is made from one of DS's old shirts!  The one on the right is the historical one.  I'm really enjoying these challenges. 

I've also been busy layering and quilting Linus quilts.  We had a very successful sewing session at Lutterworth Piecemakers, which has brought lots of tops out to be bordered and finished. 

Here is a scrappy rail fence with binding cut ready. 

And here is another quilt all ready for binding.  After delivering a massive 80 quilts for fostered children, we need to replenish the stock slightly!  Happy sewing.