Wee Wander Spanish Tiles - a Finish Friday

A finish!

I really shouldn't be so excited about this one considering how long it has been coming.  I mean I finished the top at least a year ago.  It and its aqua twin, sat waiting for me to quilt it until I got fed up waiting for time and gave it to one of the longarmers in the guild to quilt for me.  It was money well spent as it only took her a couple of days to do both of them.

I finished up the binding on the aqua one just in time for Christmas (quite literally Christmas Day), but the pink one still needed the binding.  Cue a full DVR and a day waiting for some deliveries, and it has finally been finished.

I intended to give the pink one to Olivia, who LOVES pink!  But, she saw that I had unicorn fabric in my stash, and some mermaids and asked for expects a quilt made with those fabrics too.  Cheeky of her!

For the back, I just took all my leftover scraps of the line and kind of threw them together log cabin style.

The pattern is "Spanish Tiles" by Heather Peterson of Anka's Treasures.  It is in her book, Living Large 2, which focuses on patterns for large-scale prints.  I love the idea of this book, and the designs are really brilliant, using sashing in ways I hadn't thought of.  BUT, I must admit I wish a little more attention was given to the math for the size options.  I made the twin size and had to do some of the border math myself and had quite a bit of waste (which I used on the back, so it wasn't really wasted).

Here is the aqua one too!



I just love the colors.  So does Tookie!




Thanks for reading today,


Jen




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Lights and Darks - Building Blocks Tuesday

Here are the last two Lazy Bum Flying Geese blocks for Gi.



She wanted light colored stars with dark backgrounds.



Sometimes I have trouble performing such instructions.  I get a little too caught up in the value of the fabrics.  For example, I don't think the yellow above is very light.  It is actually a very medium valued yellow.  I have very few truly "light" colored fabrics, a handful of pale pinks and a couple of lavenders; but very few light blues, greens, etc.  I need to get better about the way I shop for stash builders.

I tend to look at my stash and think "what color am I particularly low on".  For example at the moment, I have limited yellows, oranges and browns.  Luckily, these aren't colors I use often, but there have been a few times when bee mates have asked for things and I don't have them.  Perhaps I should start reminding myself that I need more lights and darks in general too.

Anyhow, I hope that these contrasting stars are enough light and dark for Gi.

What blocks have you working on this week?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading,

Jen

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Final Geese in the Forest blocks - Building Blocks Tuesday

I have finished up all the Geese in the Forest blocks for the Lazy Bums and shipped them off!



These were for Laurie who wanted bright colors with light grey backgrounds.




And these are for May, who had some specific colors she wanted to see and with scrappy solid neutrals for the skies.

I must say that I am intrigued to see all the geese quilts put together, especially these Geese in the Forest quilts.  I think they will be stunning.

I have actually finished and shipped all of the Lazy Bum Flying Geese blocks that I owed.  I will share the rest of the blocks next week.  This means that my first challenge for the 100 Days Challenge has been completed!  However, I think these blocks were the easiest of my challenge items.  Still, it feels good to have one item checked off the list.  Now to get to work on that Technicolor Galaxy quilt.  Whew, it has already been tough and I'm not even done with block one!

What blocks have you working on this week?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading,

Jen

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More Lazy Bum Flying Geese and the no waste method - Building Blocks Tuesday

More Lazy Bum flying geese blocks are finished!  These are for Celine over at Esprit Patch.  She has a lovely blog and frequently links up to Building Blocks Tuesday, so go check out what she has finished up this week.




Celine's instructions for these blocks involved the No Waste Method of making flying geese.  I've tried out this method before.  Who can resist no waste?  Last time I used this method, my geese didn't turn out very accurate.  I assumed at the time that it was because I insisted on pressing my seams open even though the instructions said not to; however, this time I pressed toward the dark, and still had a similar problem.   The "sky" part of my geese are the right length, but the geese side of the rectangle is a tiny bit short.  I was still able to make the blocks and they are within my usual parameters for accuracy, but aren't perfect.  I have far better accuracy when I use the usual rectangle and 2 squares method for making geese.  Sure, there is waste (you get 2 HST's to use later) but at least my geese are the proper size all around.  There is also no trimming in my usual method whereas in the no waste method, you trim up the sky side.  "Trim" is a four letter word, you know.  I suppose it is an inevitable action though.

In other news, it looks like I will not be "bee-less" this year after all!  Even though my We Bee With It group has decided not to renew for the first 6 months of this year, I was made an honorary Canadian in the We Bee Canadian group.  I look forward to seeing what these ladies have me make during the next few months.

What blocks have you working on this week?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading,

Jen

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Sunshine and Shadows - WIP Wednesday

Today was unusual.  Having just finished up a couple of minis for swaps (I'll post more on Finish Friday), I decided to dust off one of my UFO's, which led to dusting off a few more.  Now before we get all excited, I didn't actually finish any of these UFO's, but I did touch them!

First, I decided to get a jump on my Lazy Bum challenge for March.  My goal is to get my Lucky Star 2013 BOM top, backed and pin basted.  I know that doesn't sound like much of a challenge, but it is!

I spent at least an hour cutting and sewing up a proper backing, then another 2 hours with the tweezers picking out the tiny bits of paper that I missed when I removed them from the blocks.  Man!  That was a chore!  I have changed up my paper piecing techniques a bit since I completed these blocks and don't usually leave the papers in the seam allowances any more.  Today, I pledged to continue that practice so I could avoid the hassle of today.  Finally, I started pin basting everything together.

I got nearly finished and ran out of pins!  So I had to get another UFO out that is partially quilted and steal some pins off of it.  I still didn't quite have enough, so I concocted a plan to do a little more quilting on that UFO tomorrow so I can have enough pins to finish basting this quilt.  Sounds a lot like robbing Peter to pay Paul to me, but I guess I will get a little further along on both UFO's.

****CAUTION: Please excuse me one moment while I talk about FEELINGS.  It is abrupt and the transition back to quilty talk is awkward.  Skip ahead if you need to.****

I couldn't shake a feeling while working on this one today.  I think it started by thinking of the fabric bundle that started this project - Sunshine and Clouds from Connecting Threads (I don't think it is available any longer).  Somehow, these thought led me to think about a high school friend that passed away last year.  Tracy Hayslip.  She died of breast cancer.  Other people from my graduating class have passed away, but none struck a chord like Tracy's passing.  It's a combination of 1) knowing the person well, remembering all the times we rode around in her mustang, toilet papering other people in our church's youth group (believe it or not, this was an acceptable form of reckless fun in the group), how she wouldn't take crap from anyone, always told you how it was and should be, and was always willing to defend a friend, and 2) not really wanting to acknowledge that people still die from breast cancer.  My head was in the sand.  I recognize that there is no cure, but I guess I just thought that the people who die from breast cancer, just didn't realize they had it until it was too late,  Even when my mother was diagnosed several years ago, I didn't once doubt that she would survive.

Anyway, this quilt really made me start thinking about Tracy.  The yellow reminded me of her laugh, and the good times we shared in the Florida sunshine.  The light gray makes me think of all the years since I last spoke to her, not good, not bad, just time passing by and growing apart like people do.  The darker spots make me think of the sadness associated with losing someone we care about.

I was going to give this quilt away when I was finished with it; but, I think I need to hold on to it.  Not only to remind me of Tracy, but also that crap still happens to people we love.  I hope the next quilt I make that reminds me of someone has a lot more sunshine, and a lot fewer shadows.


***OK, emotional outburst over, quilt talk resuming NOW***

I also got out one of my oldest UFO's today and put it up on my new design wall.

The way I had my blocks stored suggested this layout.  But I think I like this next one better.

I'm leaning heavily toward the 2nd.  I think it feels more balanced.  What do you think?

I don't want to apologize for today's little blurb of emotions.  I really needed to get them out.  As this is like my online journal, it really helped me to try to put into words what I was feeling.  I am not good with feelings, and even worse at expressing them sometimes.

Thanks for sticking it out, and for reading today,



Jen

Mixing it up with more Geese - Building Blocks Tuesday

I've been on a Flying Geese tear lately.  I made these Remixed Geese for Green in the We Bee With It Bee.

The Remixed Geese pattern is free on Robert Kaufman's site.  It is a fun pattern and these geese whip up pretty quickly.  Kathinca in my Lazy Bum group is making one with wild high-contrast colors.  I'll show the blocks I made for her next week.  I can't wait to see how it comes out.

What blocks have you working on this week?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading,

Jen

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Partly Cloudy Skies - Building Blocks Tuesday

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but my Lazy Bum UFO group has formed a little bee within the group.  You see, some of us** like to reward ourselves with a new project whenever we finish up an old one. So formed a little group to exchange blocks and we agreed to have a Flying Geese theme.  We all picked projects with Flying Geese in them, though as you will see as I share the blocks in posts to come, they range widely.  As long as the block had a goose in it, it qualified.

**I don't really fall into this category.  I start new projects at will, whether or not I've finished an old one or not.  But this block exchange sounded too fun to pass up, so I agreed to join up.

This block is for Rachel, and I love the colors she chose, yellow and gray!    It is a very Sunny block, but technically the skies are gray, so does that make it a Partly Cloudy block??  That's what I've decided to call it.

What blocks have you working on this week?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading,

Jen

An InLinkz Link-up