Terribly Tedious Triangle Trimming

It was great to have my friend Liz to chat with as I trimmed this pile! She seemed to be getting on much faster with her basting and quilting...

I'm being particularly fussy and exact which seems to take me ages; but I do want the points to match in this potential HST quilt in more gum tree shades (mostly colours that I didn't end up using for this). I'll let you know how the point matching goes once I'm done with this tiresome task (nearly there)!

Please tell me the done pile is bigger than either of the to do piles? Actually I don't think it is in this photo, but I've done more since then-really!

I've had some relief from triangle trimming in the guise of unpicking and re-sewing a few of the improv squares I made the other day!

I didn't like the way some of the colours were (or weren't) playing together so I switched some around. The day was particularly gloomy so the photos aren't the best.

The wonky stripes were a bit much, so morphed into 

this

 Likewise these didn't do it for me... so I've changed them.

When I show you the finished quilt top, you'll be able to see if you can spot what remains of them in their new guises.

Yesterday Liz helped me audition a few options for a field colour for the 12 blocks. This is a bit of a challenge when I don't have all options available, it is hard choosing from a 1" square on a colour chart and I'm thinking I might need to refine my digital skills in order to visualise the options. 

Do you have any tips as to how you do this part of the design process if you don't have the colour you want to use on hand? Do you get out your coloured pencils, or are you more technical about it?

Here's One I Prepared Earlier

Another inspiration imitation of Ringle and Kerr's (-this time Chorus Line), my younger son loves this predominantly primary coloured quilt I made for him a couple of years ago.

I don't copy so slavishly these days, but I can attribute becoming more daring recently, to what I've learned by looking at others I admire and practising the skills.

Alfred decided it would be fun to climb a tree and hang the quilt down for the photo shoot since the tree's a bit short of leaves at the moment!

The design consists of increasing bands of colour on a background of batik blue with a tiny green dot.

Most of the colored strips were scraps left over from other quilts I'd made, but I bought the batik specially. I had some beautiful soft flannels in my stash , which I'd bought ages ago with Alfred's quilt back in mind, at that stage I knew he wanted a primary colored quilt but that was as far as I'd got. So I bought enough of the blue and red in a sale for a quilt back for him, but it had sat for several years, through one international and one local move! Eventually though, I do get around to things, even if I'm not speedy about it! Lucky he didn't change his mind about colour preference!

I wanted to include some yellow (not a flannel) to finish off the primary plan. And pieced it to suggest the bars of colour on the front and add a bit of interest, rather than having a plain back. The quilt is twin size. One struggle I had was that the check design is not actually printed exactly straight with the grain of the fabric and I thought it would really make a difference if it looked straight, so that was a bit of a challenge to line up. Same issue with the binding, although I didn't fuss as much about that.

For the quilting I decided to leave the bars plain, so they would stand out in relief and quilt the background from top to bottom in a zigzag pattern; dense alternating with less dense across the quilt. I used a variegated blue thread.

It's a success and last year I made him a square pillow cover with a few more leftovers, for sitting up and reading in bed, or wherever... He seems happy enough about it!

Improv in Pajamas

 Saturday morning still in pajamas-(or I was on Saturday morning when I wrote this and didn't publish it); pondering the improv top I made yesterday, apologies for the poor low light photos

thinking about the back and looking at the pile of fabrics I didn't include and instead starting on another top! I dared to cut into possibly the favourite fabric I've ever bought.

still improvising squares... More and better photos soon...

Magic Mushrooms

I'm no mycologist but I do know a photo opportunity when I see one!

It was a bit of a glowering day,

but we ventured up to Fox Creek for a bit of a walk/ ride. The riders did well,

but the walkers got distracted by the local colour and form to be found at every turn:

Love the colour gradations and the texture and wrinkles at the edge

 and those amazing gills!

Walkers and riders reunited for a coffee/hot chocolate/wine tasting at the new local cellar door with a view and inspirational organic contoured quilting lines!

A great Sunday excursion!

Been anywhere yourself lately?

~ Camilla