Showing posts with label chequerboard block. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chequerboard block. Show all posts

Friday, 9 November 2012

Rainy Day Quilt

I've been a bad girl. And I haven't updated my blog in a while. Like someone recently remarked, "I love chaos. Till it tires me and then I love routine. Till it bores me and then I love chaos" ! Story of my life.

Well, here's my latest finish, The Rainy Day Quilt, which quite obviously had its beginnings on a lovely rainy day a year back. (Yes, a year back!) After some starts and stops over the past year (mostly stops), it finally made its journey from the UFO to FINISHED pile. Am happy to report that even as I type, its on its way to the recipient, a dear friend's mom whom I call Aunty.



Too bright you say? Well, I did call and ask my friend what colours her mom would like only to be told that Aunty wears only very muted and soft colours. So I tried putting together a very low volume palette for her. But something inside screamed, 'wrong, wrong, wrong'. I should tell you a bit about this lady in question. She is an amazing woman in whos path Life has tried to throw every kind of googly. She has dealt with each blow with quiet strength and amazing grace, qualities I admire HUGELY. But I think that the sadness that such tragedies bring to our lives, somehow seeps into our daily colours and I wanted something bright and absurdly happy for her. So.

What, not bright enough you say? Well, I did try to mute it a bit by adding a border of tiny pastel roses and a not overly bright backing. Just in case, you know :-).




Did some FMQ, outlining the fussy cut roses and doing some leaves and tendrils on the chequerboards.


Ok, ok, I TRIED some fmq. The odd shapes make me smile :-).




Did some waves on the border..some hot pink binding..


..and bundled it off with lots of love to dear frail-looking-but-super-strong Aunty to be used as a pick-me-up in hard times and a superwoman cape in others.


Spread the love people ! Hot pink rules !!

Btw, did you know good girls go to heaven? Bad girls go everywhere.

Friday, 4 November 2011

Adjust, Improvise, Adapt, Evolve

As with life, so with quilting.

After a long, hard look at my mis-sized rainy day quilt blocks, I decide to trim them all to the smaller size. I know the scrap-elf is being naughty again coz the blocks keep becoming smaller and smaller and the pile of discarded trimmings, bigger and bigger! Now the only option I have is to add a sashing. Unless I want it to end up as a crib quilt. Which I don't. So something that was supposed to look like this...

...ends up looking like this...



Hmmn. I like the sashing. The red kind of balances the bright pink and green. Good. It'll still too bright though. Am afraid the receipient will need to wear a pair of sunglasses. Maybe I'll tone it down a bit with a sober border. Hmmn.

Put together this palette for a friend who loves turquiose blue and fuschia pink :

Oh wait, isn't it similar to the rainy day quilt palette? I guess I love it too. More than I realize. :-)

So, adjust, improvise, adapt, evolve. Happily. 

Saturday, 29 October 2011

Oops, I did it again !

First the background...Well, here's the fabric for the quilt that was conceived in a flash of inspiration on a lovely rainy day. Love the colours. So I go ahead full steam, cutting and piecing. Love the colours so much I wanna take a pic even before pressing..

And then again AFTER pressing ..

..and THEN I measure the finished pieced blocks and they are a full 1/2" smaller than they are supposed to be!! So now I have half the blocks that finish at 10" and half that finish at 9.5" :-(. Disaster!

So what do I do, what do I do? I make myself a nice cup of ginger tea, abandon the blocks and instead fashion a festoon for my bookshelf out of the scraps and selvages to cheer me up :-). (I'd probably have done that anyway, coz I just LOVE the colours and can't bear to throw any bit away.  But then, I already told you that!)


Cheer up, all you folks !!  :-)