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Last week Joanna Figueroa gave us "Invigorate" for the Sewcialites weekly quilt block. I like seeing a bloom with little leaves blowing around it, a posie with ribbons, plaid zig zags or a rainbow burst.  I liked the first one and will have it live in the yellow section of the rainbow print.  This week Sherri McConnell's "Fascinate" block shows off some green fun for Saint Patrick's Day. Plus sign, arrow heads, variations on a churn dash and stair steps all play in the color studies.  My block has some purple and pink and I like the variations on the corner shapes based on the lights and darks in the little patchwork. So many options!  It is so fun to see the little blocks in with their friends and soon the joining into a long row for my runner will begin. Till then, four more weeks of sweet little blocks! 
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 Just a little pattern play with Pansy's Posies today. Picket with the picket fence and colored borders is a good pattern to show off those purple and green colors. I've mocked up the 60 x 60" lap size with a mix of 8 fat quarters. The purple ones use Thatched Pansy 160 for the dark background and the Dotty Thatched Lavender 48715-213 for the light one.  I love greens for a background for the pansies. My top darker green is Thatched 197 Grass and the lower, lighter one is Thatched Meadow 134. Chartreuse is also a good green to pair with this group. In general, when I have a darker background color, I tend to pair prints with it that are lighter and for a light background I look for the darker prints so there is a good amount of contrast in the quilt top.
Picket can also be made with a layer cake of a collection in both the smaller lap or larger 72" square size. If you want to make the larger size with fat quarters, you will need 13 of them.  Well yippeeeee yahhooooo it is my week for Sewcialites 2 with Fat Quarter Shop! Meet my "spellbound" block. A quarter triangle block is surrounded by little patchwork squares and then framed by another outer row with squares on the ends. The free pattern is available at the Fat Quarter Shop. All patterns are listed here when released: https://www.fatquartershop.com/sewcialites First I'm sharing my color studies but please also keep reading to see my plans for using my blocks in a colorful table runner.  The first one focuses on each row as its own mix of light and dark blues in squares. The next one reminded me of arrows pointing in with shaded 3d arrow bases. The third one makes me think of an hour glass with white sand running from top to bottom ("the sands of time..."). On the bottom row, the outer blues make another chunky plus sign to surround the inner arrows. Then a couple of rainbow spectrum experiments moving around the color wheel, either in the center or in the rows of small squares.  For this sewalong, they asked for blocks that make us crazy. I find that matching up little patchwork square seams can be one of my crazy-making things. Pressing seams in opposite directions, then nesting the seams when joining rows helps. Another thing that helps is when the little squares line up against a sashing or other rectangle, like the little blocks here. As for nesting seams, this is a picture of the back of the blocks. The arrows show some of the places where I have pressed seams to nest.  Another thing I will do with little patchwork and small block piecing is starching. I generally don't starch much but with small sized blocks, the starch will help for handling the fabric better and it keeping its shape as you sew and press. If I am doing patchwork squares I will see if I can make some longer pieces and subcut them and I tend to press to one side on my seams instead of pressing open so they don't pull apart easily when I handle them. These things seem to help with small patchwork squares. For my block, I've a little blue 3" block for my project using all my blocks in Wild Blossoms. And then I wanted to make a rainbow square Thatched version. I have some leftover Thatched blocks from Moda Blockheads that I have quilted as little minis for the wall so I might add this to the mix.   Want to know WHAT I am going to do with those little 3" blocks? The Wild Blossoms fabrics (which are shipping to shops at the end of this month) has a big Width-of-Fabric print that runs selvage to selvage in a big rainbow print of multiple wild flowers. I've been making my blocks in the different colors with the intention of lining them up with the colors in the WOF print.  I want to add in a 1" wide sashing strip between the blocks (for a finished sashing size of 1/2") and make a table runner. These are some mock ups of the versions I've been considering, with sold squares left for the blocks that are released in the weeks ahead. The 42" wide runner has two rows of blocks, either in the center, with a center print running through, or placed on the long sides. The top one has cream sashings surrounding the blocks and the second one only has sashings between the blocks and the rainbow print running up to the blocks on top and bottom. For the third one above I tried the Greenery light chartreuse fabric for sashing since it looks really springy.  It is a good idea to get a little extra of the rainbow print so you can position the fabric appropriately to show off the little bees. The above ideas would need either 1/3 or 1/2 yard of the WOF print, 1/8 or 1/4 yard for sashing and 1/3 yard for binding (indicated under each image). The CUT sizes of the rainbow print are listed to the right of the images. Another idea is to make a longer runner with a single line of blocks and two pieces of the WOF rainbow print. When wanting to blend the color ramp continuously, I flip the print upside down to continue the flow of color. My table is sized to handle this long version well so I think this is what I will make. I've mocked it up with either the lighter colors/yellows to the center or the darker blues to the center of the runner.  The longer runners need 3/4 yard of WOF print, 1/4 yard sashing, 1/2 yard binding. For binding I'm not sure what I'm using yet but it might be the new Thatched bias binding that Moda makes which is sold by the yard. That makes it SO easy!!  This sewalong has been lots of fun! I've really enjoyed seeing the various blocks people share in the Sewcialites Lounge on facebook. Because I want to keep the sewing joy going, I'm participating in the Bountiful sew along with Fat Quarter Shop with the quilt pattern Corey Yoder designed. I'm using the Wild Blossoms fabric for that one too and you can see the mockup and fabric requirements for the Bountiful quilt on the previous post at https://www.robinpickens.com/blog/2023-bountiful-quilt-along-with-the-fat-quarter-shop-to-benefit-make-a-wish. I hope you will join us. Happy sewing everyone!   I am thrilled to be sewing along on this absolutely stunning and happy quilt design from Corey Yoder for the Bountiful Quilt Along hosted by the Fat Quarter Shop. This is such a springy, charming quilt! The Fat Quarter Shop also has a matching cross stitch project to go along with it too. This is the mockup of the quilt done in Wild Blossoms fabrics:  I have completely enjoyed getting to know Corey Yoder more through exhibiting with Moda Fabrics at Quilt Market. She is just delightful. And this past summer I taught at a retreat in her home town of Berlin Ohio and got to enjoy some more time with her there. She drove us to dinner in her Jeep with no doors and the wind whipping through our hair. What a fun way to spend a summer night! To learn more about this sew along that benefits Make-A-Wish, please visit the Fat Quarter Shop's page to get started at https://blog.fatquartershop.com/lets-get-ready-for-bountiful/ Moda Fabrics is partnering with Fat Quarter Shop to match the first $30,000 in donations. Also, I will be giving my finished quilt to Fat Quarter Shop to auction off for the charity towards the end of the sew along. Stay tuned for more info on that! You can go right to the first block info: blog.fatquartershop.com/2023-bountiful-quilt-along-release-1-baskets/ My plan is to make this quilt in my Wild Blossoms fabric collection. This line is shipping to shops later this month from Moda Fabrics (and YES Fat Quarter Shop will be carrying it as well as a bundle of coordinating Thatched colors). If you would like to make one with Wild Blossoms as well, I'm including the fabric specifications based on what the Fat Quarter Shop has done and what I substituted in. I uses a little more of some fabrics and added in a couple more choices to the mix.  Although I am making mine with the cream Thatched background (48626-36), I thought it would be fun to take a look at it in Thatched Navy (48626-94) or even Deep Sea (48626-145). Both of these versions would be so striking.  I could not resist the fresh light feel of the cream background so I'm working with that. The first blocks of baskets are so sweet! These are each 24" blocks and are large so I just decided to take my photos on the floor. I made mine with the same outer Queen Anne's Lace yellow fabric with one basket in reds/pinks and the other in blue.   The next blocks for Bountiful will be released on April 7th. Happy sewing!  |
About ROBINDesigner of colorful florals for Moda fabrics. Modern to transitional quilt designer. Illustrator, sewist, crafter. I am proud to be a designer for Moda Fabrics!
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