What I’m working on

I finished up the Kona Stars quilt last week. I have a backing all ready for it so as soon as the quilt on the long arm is finished, I can load this and get it quilted.

 

And since none of us are going anywhere any time soon, I decided to dig into my stash and start another quilt. Four or five years ago a friend and I did a swap of Disappearing Four Patches using large scale floral prints paired with Kona white fabric. This was the finished quilt.

If I remember correctly we swapped four blocks a month for ten months. That meant accumulating a fairly large selection of large scale floral fabrics that have been sitting in my stash ever since. So I did some searching through the block libraries in Electric Quilt 8 to see if I could find a block that would showcase the florals. I found a block called Tumbling Blocks Frame. The centre of this block is perfect for a large scale floral print. I’m doing the blocks to finish at 12 inches, so the centre square is a generous 6 inches which will showcase the fabrics quite nicely. I have five blocks finished and several more cut out and ready to go.



As I’m cutting for these I’m also cutting a 6 7/8 inch square for a future basket quilt using these florals. I think anything that is left is going to get pieced into backings.

In my wanderings around blog land this morning I came across this Stay at Home Round Robin. It looks like it would be fun. I can do the centre square using a 12 inch appliqué square that is already finished and waiting to go into something. I have tons of 1 1/2 inch strips that can quickly go into a piano key border for the first round.  And just maybe some of the large scale florals that I’m currently playing with can become the pinwheels for the second round. I dunno, I may just do this.......

I’m linking up to Design Wall Monday and Monday Makings.

WIP Wednesday

I’m taking full advantage of the orders to stay hame and distance from other people. If it weren’t for such a serious reason it would be a pure delight to do it. As it is, there is no shortage of something to do if one happens to be a quilter. I’m working on more Kona Stars. There are a lot of blank spaces yet where the alternate blocks go.



 I’m trying to stay within the stash I have and use the colours I’ve got. That means there are a lot of repeat colours. It is going to be a challenge to not have them together. I’ve given myself the loose guideline that the same colour can be diagonal to the other but not side by side. I only have two more of the primary blocks to make. But I’m holding off making those until I get more alternates done, just to see what I need for colour placement. I can’t actually sew any of the alternates together until  I decide on final placement since they each use pieces from the colours around them, which is why they are pinned on the wall as pieces rather than blocks.
I’m linking to the Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday and to Mid Week Makers. Stay safe and healthy everyone!

WIP Wednesday

I am getting so excited about these Kona Star blocks. The colours are so fun and so vibrant and intense that I can’t get enough of them. It looks like another project has become an obsession. And I’m loving every minute of it.



I will eventually  end up repeating some of the colours and from here on I’m going to have to pay more attention to colour lay out so that the colours don’t end up all bunched together. I’m also going to have to figure out a bigger design wall. Right now all I have are two 36x48 inch foam core boards that are covered with batting, and what I have done now is occupying all the space on those.

As much as I want to dive back in to making more of these blocks, I have work to do today. I need to get a quilt loaded onto the long arm and at least a couple of passes done. I am finding it harder to stand at the long arm.for the length of time necessary to get quilts finished. So it takes many days of short bursts of work, an hour or two at a time. With that in mind, I am going to link up to the Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday and also to Mid-week Makers and then go up and get started.