I've been eagerly awaiting the new RSC color to make sure I made a scrappy pinwheel before the month was done, and I was so hoping the February color for RSC 2020 was going to be red. But no, the choice this month is orange.
Hmm, not a fan? But just look at all those orange possibilities! It's a color I don't have problem with, yet I'd rather see it in the fall, paired with yellows and reds - oh make me swoon with that combo!
Believe it or not, my orange scraps are rather on the stingy side, filling only a quart size zip lock bag. I thought I would have more after making all those pumpkins and leaves over the last couple years. Maybe I was very efficient in my cutting and sewing?
Anyway, I managed to have enough for the 12 1/2" pinwheel block, which I love - it reminds me of orange sherbet -
and a couple 8.5" and 4" blocks. Still not sure what I'll do with these.
Now there's just a few scraps in the bag, which are sorta orange and don't belong anywhere else. But they weren't a good fit for this project, so back in they go, along with the few small pieces left from the blocks.
And I've fulfilled my commitment for the month, on my way to completing a full year of RSC - woohoo! Two down, ten to go. Are you playing along??
Happy Quilting!
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Adorable kitties and hearts? Yes please! I want to Wrap Up Some Love with these!
Who can resist sweet, soft kitties? They're known to be masters of love, and excel at curling their tails around your heart. Goodness knows, it's happened to me several times!
Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and all of my heart table runners - Love Match, Heart to Heart, Sweetheart, and Love Abounds - decorate the dining and living rooms. But something's missing, the sofa is bare. It needs a heart themed lap quilt!
Though inspired by all the FREE heart patterns posted last month, I wanted something a bit different. Being a cat lover, I saw this cute line drawing,
which sent me down a road of how to construct it in fabric. After a few sketches on graph paper, sizing pieces to cut, and a lot of stitch 'n flip sewing, a cat/heart block was born. Oh! It happened again - a kitty wrapped around my heart!
With such easy construction, I made a few more kitties, having fun changing the cat and heart fabrics, and waited for the blocks to speak to me. No, they didn't purr or meow, but did give me a setting to work with. All the quilt needed were additional blocks to tie it all together.
Keeping in mind the strong diagonal element going on, the first blocks I made overpowered the cats with too much red. Changing the color placement made the re-worked blocks just right, adding the right amount of spark. I think of them as a combined hug and a kiss!
Add in additional background, and a simple heart pantograph, and these kitties are ready to Wrap Up Some Love!
The Wrap Up Some Love pattern is perfect a Valentine quilt to the confident beginner quilter and above.
Happy Quilting!
My Favorite Patterns
This month, I'm choosing a book that's a bit out of my comfort zone - English Paper Piecing II (affiliate link) by Vicki Bellino.
I rarely stitch anything by hand anymore, so why English paper piecing? Well, I've got some upcoming vacations that have really long (almost painful) plane flights, and would like something other than a book or a movie to occupy my time.
It's also high time I opened up the pack of hexie papers I bought years ago from Paper Pieces, and maybe try out some diamond shape templates from Tales of Cloth.
This might be a good opportunity to use up some of those scraps too. Just need to sort through them, and come up with a plan.
Now, as for the book, there are a lot of very, very nice projects to make, more up to date than what the book cover conveys. The publisher could probably have a successful relaunch of this book if they reprinted it with a different cover. Yes, it's a beautiful quilt, but it makes the book look dated (published in 2014).
Here's a couple projects that caught my eye:
Little Dresden Patch
I love the rounded edges on the hexies!
Simple Splendor
a more traditional quilt
and Summer Garden
a flower filled bed runner - how cute is that?
Though I'll just be working with traditional shapes this time, the book covers all the basics, from cutting, to basting, to joining for any shape - enough to get me started!
And if you're an Electric Quilt user, one of their recent blog posts featured designing with the one-patch setting, which includes hexies and more - check it out here. Just some more inspiration for those hexies!
Now don't expect a finished project any time soon, unless I'm super motivated or bored to tears on those flights! Remember the last hand project (Mediterranean Rose) took 1.5 years for block completion, and another 5.5 for a final quilt. Let's hope for a better outcome - I'm looking forward to getting started!
Happy Quilting!
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