autumn colours

Two blocks with new rosehips fabric (+ pink quilt update)

~ lynsey333 ~ Leave a comment

These are my latest two blocks, put together over the last 2-3 weeks, both using a new rosehips fabric I bought from Laughing Hedgehogs. I also got one in brown, which I’m working with now. I’m pleased to have got some more of the woodland animals fabric, which I think is nice and autumnal. Haven’t put all the blocks together for a while, to see how messy / overly orange it looks when they’re all together!

I’ve been focussing on the pink quilt at weekends, in between other commitments (what with swimming, driving lessons, and / or church events my weekends seem to vanish distressingly quickly), trying to make the back. Last weekend I realised that my plan A of 3 x 3 squares wouldn’t work because I needed fabric bigger than fat quarters, which is mostly what I have. So I decided on a 4 x 4 design, but am making the outer ‘squares’ larger, so that the ones in the middle of the four sides are actually rectangles, but once they’re cut down after quilting they’ll look square-ish. I had several disasters cutting fabric last weekend, it turns out bigger ones are hard to cut accurately with the rulers I had, so having wasted fabric and driven myself mad I sent for a 15 x 15 inch square ruler (bigger would have been better because the outer pieces are 17 x 17 at the corners and 14 x 17 in the middle of the sides, but the cost was against me) and more fabric. Some of the fabric wasn’t how I’d thought it would look in the online photos, so I’ve ended up with more ‘stash’ than I started with – argh!!! But still, I’ve eventually got the pieces cut, sometimes using two rulers alongside each other, and have decided where they’re going to be placed (taken a photo to remind myself) and have made up two of the four rows. I’d love to have all four made up and sewn together by this weekend, but me and the sewing machine are bad enough at the best of times, even less good friends at night. Yesterday I did 6 seams in total and two of them had to be pulled out again. I’m so nervous about quilting it when the happy day eventually comes, I may need to do deep breathing exercises in advance!

Red fox and other woodland animals

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This is the latest block, using a new ‘woodland animals’ fabric I got on e-bay, with three of my three favourite blenders almost all I have left of the dark orange leafy one which is now discontinued (another e-bay purchase I haven’t seen anywhere since). I actually finished this over a week ago, but between concentrating on the pink quilt, doing no patchwork at all at the weekend, and having a sudden surge of enthusiasm for my cable knit jumper and cross stitch cushion cover, I find I’ve backed off this project a bit. Ironically, now autumn is starting to kick in I’m keen to get on with the jumper, which is in a natural brown undyed wool, meaning the autumn quilt is being neglected! But they say a change is as good as a rest, and I’m going to get back on the case tonight and choose fabrics for the next block. It’ll be nice once autumn starts to feel more properly like autumn, instead of having darker evenings and mornings, overcast skies and falling leaves, but a horrible hot humidity that means I’m still in sleeveless tops and wishing for some air. Soon, soon…

Majestic stag and lots of autumn leaves

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IMGP0783I love the centre fabric here, with the woodland animals, it’s just a shame the light colour is white rather than cream, though you can’t tell too much on a piece like this. As usual, I spent ages working out the best combination! A rare opportunity to take a photo in natural light outdoors, to give a better idea of the colours. Not one of my better-finished pieces, and top-left inner corner piece is stretched quite a bit out of shape, whoops. I’m hoping its not too obvious once quilted.

This one took me a fortnight partly because in the evenings/weekends I was busy with sewing machine, working on the pink quilt. About which more later!

Another plain(ish) block, lighter colours

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Another attempt to make a plainer block, starting with the cream fabric which has flecks of orange and greenish-brown in it. I thought the other three blended nicely with it and that the dark green with orange leaves would be the stand-out colour, though I’m now wondering if the pattern of smaller leaves on a pale background is more striking than I thought. I’ll place this block with the others to see how it looks. Really rushed to get this one finished, so I could get more time to do cross stitch and possibly knitting this weekend, though it’s going to be a busy one so I’m not sure that I’ll get much done at all. I’ll go slower next week, getting some momentum going is fun, but rushing too much makes it a bit less enjoyable. In my head, I’d like to be able to wear the jumper I’m knitting this winter, and would love to see the cross stitch cushion cover I’ve been working on on-and-off for years eventually finished, ideally also by the winter, but I’m probably being very over-optimistic!

 

New block, simpler colours

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I’ve just finished this block, in an attempt to make more blocks in plainer colours which will make the patterned ones stand out more. In theory! Had to go shopping (again. I could now stock a fabric shop), but the shop I went to didn’t have many colours I liked. I was looking for creams but most looked pale lemony yellow, which wasn’t what I was after. I got a few but felt I probably wouldn’t use them, then spotted the nice dark one in the centre here. It matches the burgundy and green and cream, but without being a solid colour which I thought would be too much. I like the end result, but when I it out alongside some of the other blocks I felt it stood out more than the others! I suppose this is because all the more patterned blocks are too patterned, so the fabrics have blended into each other from a distance, though not so much when you look closely. Also, it’s getting really very orange! I did get more creamy-coloured fabrics online which I think are better, so I’ll try out some combinations with those. This week I chose colours at the weekend, took a photo, and cut the pieces, then made up the block during the week, and this worked well so I’ll do the same this coming week. Finishing it last night gave me the opportunity to make my first steps in paper piecing, about which more later (I’d best start work now!)

New block!

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Block no. 3: IMGP0058

Quite pleased with this one, it’s just a shame about the headless animals! I did cut the pieces in what I thought was such a way that the animals would come out centre, but they didn’t. Except the woodpecker, phew. The badger could just be looking round the corner. The trouble is that cutting the pieces that way wastes a lot of fabric.

Still working out what to do to put the blocks together so that there’s something connecting them; now I’ve got three I’ll stare at them and hope for inspiration.