I have seemingly done nothing this week but on reflection I’ve done lots of little bits. After my huge excitement at the National Quilt Championship and being very good not buying too much I was super keen to get started on the quilt for big C.  She loved the layer cake and on Saturday night I sat down to get started, opened the pack, looked and played with fabrics.  It contains 20 different fabrics (2 of each).  Mixed them up but it didn’t quite make me as happy as when they ran through the colour gradient.  3 of the fabrics didn’t do it for me and I have learned from experience if you don’t like the fabric don’t include it as you can’t take it out once it is sewn in and it is all you will see in the finished quilt.

Big C expressed a preference for HST so I set about designing.  Decided I would do the trick of sewing 2 squares all the way round the outside then cutting them in 4 across the diagonal to create 4 identical HST blocks – can’t remember what this is called.  I decided I would pair the fabrics with the next colour in the gradient I had and I would stagger the fabrics.  Little sketch done and a few late-night calculations of its finished size done, it was full steam ahead.  Sunday morning up early while the girls went off with Daddy to swimming and rugby, me and the sewing machine got busy.

Needless to say, I soon discovered the error of my ways.  Rushing into something means you make errors.  Having sewn half the squares and sliced them and dry laid out the pattern I discovered it was much smaller in one direction than I expected…..Doh!  Yes late night maths is not my forte… Needless to say I sulked for the rest of the day ….. and the next day.

Having got over it I sat down with some graph paper trying to work out a way to best use the already sewn and cut fabric with the remaining stuff to get a quilt of the right kind of size.  After a few hours of thinking and playing I came up with this design.  It required me to sew the remaining squares with the colour the other side of it in the colour gradient and slice in the same way.

One evening I got down to sewing and slicing.  Its soooo satisfying to achieve something in the evening.  Once having all these pieces, I laid it out then had a play and asked big C what she liked and wanted to do… Now I have so many alternatives but just not 100% about any.

Another thing I didn’t take enough attention of is colour saturation.  Taking a photo in black and white is really helpful as it shows the quilt in another way and show a design can be unbalanced by the tone of the fabric.

This week I have also planted out a couple of hydrangeas suffering in the heat.  Planted out big C’s pumpkin plants in the hope of growing one for Halloween and one to eat.  Re-doing a terrarium with a new succulent. And some general garden maintenance.

I have a workman in the house this week finishing the extension related items.  The extension was finished but there is a load of decoration and finishing bits left over mainly because I wanted the builders out and no more battling to get stuff done.  I wanted/ intended to do them but have realised I’m not going to be able to without spreading myself too thin until big C is at school and baby is at nursery.   The finishing off in typical me style has extended to decorating the front room as well, finishing the floor, maybe a replacement front door and the drive way.  All of which were on the to do list just not straight away! So I have been running round getting bits for this work too.

Anyway I will do a post before and after showing the front room in due course!

.. I also designed and getting our breakfast bar lighting made, finally & redid my pink hair!!!

Anyhow back to playing with big C’s quilt design…..

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