The Missing U, A Work In Progress

I woke up to this today! My hubby is sweet...and better at remembering dates that me!

 
 I've spent the past week like this....

Blech, summer colds are THE WORST! Being under the weather means I haven't felt like being out in the garden or enjoying the warm weather we've been having.

Without the energy to do much else, besides working  and sleeping, and even that was hard, I managed to stitch some blocks last weekend and continued to stitch a couple of blocks over the last few evenings, working away on this "The Missing U" quilt from the book, Sunday Morning Quilts by Amanda Jean Nyberg and CherylArkison.

See the little owl applique?

A set of three blocks takes me about two hours to make, depending on how big or small the scraps are.  The blocks are smaller than those in the book. I made mine 12.5" unfinished and I've made 20 blocks, so the quilt top will measure a nice 48" x 60" when done.

I am so glad I sorted my scraps as it inspired me to make these colourful blocks! There are scraps in here from my very first quilt (1991!) and scraps I recognize that friends and fellow quilters have passed along to me, it has lots of variety (there's even a snippet or two of Habitat by Jay McCarroll, from our guild's Habitat Challenge...my challenge is still just a top)!

I dug through my stash and found this kiddie fabric I have had forever! It's a teal green (not sure if the colour is true in the picture); with little stick drawing boys and girls. All the years I've had it folded in my stash, I didn't know it had a border on it! Super cute!

I think I'll use this fabric on the back. It's a Patrick Lose print from 1996! I'm glad I'll finally do something with it!

Have an awesome week!

Habitat Challenge

When the FVMQ guild announced a new fabric challenge using Habitat by Jay McCarroll, I really wanted to be a part of it!

Unfortunately, all the fabric packets were spoken for, so I was out of luck. As generous quilters can be, Barb offered up her fabric pack and gave it to me at the next meeting.

After I got the fabrics and had a really good look at them, I wasn't sure if I should thank Barb or she should thank me for taking this challenge off her hands! Ha! I found the Habitat fabrics a really interesting mix of textures and colours, and I wracked my brain for days trying to come up with an idea to use it. These are the six fabrics I received in my fat eights pack.
  

  

Remember these triangles? I made up a whack of triangles, but then what?

Hmm, I had seen this super-cute fall pillow tutorial on one of my favourite blogs, Cluck Cluck Sew. I have wanted to make this pattern ever since I saw it, and thought the Habitat fabrics would make great leaves for the tree.

I used the scraps leftover from making the triangles and made up a pile of leaves until I ran out of fabric, and the centre block of my Habitat quilt was born! I used the same method as demonstrated on the Cluck Cluck Sew blog,where Allison fused and straight-stitched around the edge of all the leaves.

I played around with the triangles surrounding the centre block, but thought it looked too busy with the triangles side by side, and it wouldn't end up much bigger than a wall hanging. I wanted this to be a lap size quilt so with some planning and using Excel to draft out the number of triangles needed, I figured out how big I could make it.

Of course, I didn't realize until I was at retreat that the pieces of solid fabric I pulled from my stash weren't going to be big enough for what I had planned, so I just improvised and made do with what I had! Without even intending to, I think my quilt has a decidedly '70s feel to it!

I brought some brushed cotton in a yummy caramel colour to audition for the back (I think I bought it in '97)! There wasn't quite enough of it, so I had fun playing and pieced the middle panel so it would be long enough. So much fun!

I can't believe how different all the quilts have turned out using the same Habitat fabrics as a starting point. This definitely has been a challenge and has forced many of us to stretch out beyond our comfort zone, but I am very happy with the results! I'm adding this to my Power of Ten list to get it finished this year!

Triangles, Triangles...Triangles Everywhere!

The FVMQ guild is participating in the Modern Quilt Guild Habitat Challenge and I received the fabric from another member who graciously passed the challenge on to me! Nice! (thanks Barb!)

Well, I have been mulling it over, eyeballing the fabric, and trying to come up with some idea that might work with this fabric. You can add solids to go with your Habitat fabrics, but no other prints.

I decided just to plunge in and start SOMETHING, anything to get over this quilter's block...so, I am making lots of triangles!

I still don't know what I am going to do with them, but it's a start, and I will let this project percolate and lead me along..wherever that may be!