A star from chevrons

I took a little creative side trip from some larger projects I'm currently working on because I had a flash of inspiration.  Last summer I made a bright, summery chevron runner

 (which you can read about here)and when I was finished, I had several pieced strips leftover.

 

My Summer Chevron Runner. I have a tutorial for making these strip pieced chevrons found HERE.

The leftover strips (which looked similar to the ones shown on the back of the runner) have been hanging in my sewing room for all these months, looking pretty while encouraging me to find a use for them. 

The back of the runner has leftover strips incorporated into the design. Still, I had some remaining unused strips.

 

 I was flipping through library books and magazines this weekend when the idea came to me.  I had to know if it was possible to use those strips to piece together a star.

 

 

Okay, it involved some stitch ripping, cutting a few more diamonds and deliberate placement of colours, but as you can see, the idea worked.  Everything was sewn by machine, which meant it came together quickly.  Matching seams was a little tricky, but manageable and rather than tackle sewing in the background pieces as diamonds, I cut them in half.  Triangles were even easier to handle if you sew things together in a logical manner.

I finished the background last evening and immediately pinned it to my design wall (which as you can see, is completely covered by my Impromptu quilt top). 

 

  I stood back to view my creation and wonder how to proceed.  Do I turn this into a table topper? a pillow? a mini quilt?  or ????   My husband ( a well versed veteran of these creative debates I have with myself) quickly voiced his thoughts that I should, "Quilt it, Bind it and Move on".  

 That made me laugh! 

 Apparently, my desire to try to sew every idea there is out there, is well known in this household (do you think it's my stash that gave away that secret? ;o).  It's also obvious there's no such thing as the infinite amount of time that would be needed to be able to sew everything my heart desires.  Still, doesn't keep me from shooting for the moon...or in this case, for the stars. ;o)

Barcelona

Well, I can stop stalking my postman. ;o) Look what arrived on my doorstep this week! 

 These lovely fabrics are from Brigitte Heitland's newest fabric line Barcelona, which debuted at Quilt Market this spring and will be in stores this summer

. 

This gorgeous, generous scrappy bundle came from Brigitte's studio as winnings from a giveaway she had recently. Amazing, right? It's okay to be jealous.  I totally understand. ;o)  

 These lovely fabrics are inspiring all sorts of project ideas and as soon as I can, I will be making something from them.  Thanks so much, Brigitte!!!

 

 Meantime, check out Brigitte's newest patterns featuring Barcelona (click here!).

 

If you haven't visited Brigitte, before, please do! 

 She's absolutely lovely and she's the talent behind  "Zen Chic" - continually creating gorgeous modern fabrics and quilt patterns we can all fall in love with.   

 I promise you will come away from her blog inspired and eager to get stitching. :o)

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day...

in the form of a bright, happy quilt top!  It's my version of the Impromptu quilt designed by Rachel of PS I Quilt.  I'm rather surprised at how quickly the sewing went on this quilt. I think I took longer deciding on a backing fabric than I took to sew the quilt top together! lol

I managed to finish the flimsy this week and have been waiting to take some pictures of it outside, but with rain happening on and off, all week long, I decided to share the shots of it on my design wall.  You'll just have to trust me when I say it's a completed flimsy. ;o)

 

This photo is the one the best captures the colour of the background fabric.  Seems yellow can be a tricky colour to photograph. ;o)

 

 Remember me holding my breath over my background fabric choice?  It's the first time I've used a text print for a background and more than that, it's the first time I've ever used so much y-e-l-l-o-w.  It's not that I hate yellow or anything, but for some reason it seemed very brave maybe even crazy to want it for a background colour. 

 

 

 

Turns out, I couldn't be happier with that background fabric.  It's not as bright as white would be for contrasting with the blocks, but it's still a clear colour contrast.  The part I like most is that it's not a flat colour - the text print makes a subtle statement and adds some interest, I think.

All those happy colours make this a very "Summer" quilt to me.  Sunshine, flowers, fresh picked berries and picnics all come to mind when I look at this selection of fabric.  I can hardly wait to get this quilted... but I will have to wait until my backing fabric arrives.  Of course, it's not like I don't have things to sew in the meantime and I can't complain about seeing this lovely mix of colour upon the wall when I walk into my sewing room. 

 

It seems we have a moment of sunshine this morning, so I'm going to go out and enjoy it while it lasts.  With any luck it will last long enough for us to spend time hiking in celebration of Father's Day today. ;o)

 

Happy Father's Day!

Make my tea towels Zakka!

Surprise!  I got caught up doing  more Zakka sewing. Admit it.  You knew that would happen. ;o)  The second project in the Zakka Along 2.0 sew along using

 Patchwork, Please 

 is a set of pretty tea towels.  Certain to bring smiles when it's your turn to dry the dishes. ;o)

 

I decided to make my set as gifts - so I chose the recipient's favourite colour to make my version using blues. 

 Oh, and since I didn't have access to a copier to enlarge the applique templates for the letters, I drafted my own set - which happen to be larger than the ones used in the book.  Obviously, this affected the placement of the appliques a bit, but it still works. :o)

 

 

I love working with linen.  Especially as it comes in a wider width than cotton, so I could cut 2 towels with no waste across the width of the linen.  Yay!

 

It was so much fun choosing fabrics for the appliques.  I think my favourite is the text print fabric I used for the soup pot on the "Dinner" tea towel.   Soup is "healing", right? :o)

 

 

Jumping back a project for a moment...my love affair with the first project of the book - the Bell Pepper Coasters didn't feel complete until I added a fourth pepper. ;o)

Just as she suggests, Ayumi's projects make great gifts.  Each of my first two projects is destined for giving.  Yay!  They also make for some satisfying sewing. ;o)

I'll be adding my sew along finishes to the Flickr group

 and linking up with Amanda Jean's Finish-it-up-Friday!

Zakka. Simply irresistible.

Have you heard about the sew along using the new book,

 Patchwork, Please! : Colorful Zakka Projects to Stitch and Give

 by Ayumi Takahashi? 

 

I happened to pick up this book over the weekend and was delighted with the gorgeous projects it contains and couldn't wait to get stitching. ;o)

I stitched up these fun bell pepper coasters this afternoon using Ayumi's delightful book. I thought they were too cute to resist and I think they'll make a great gift.  I'm also thinking of joining in on the sew along. 

Apparently, you can join in at any time and  there will be a post for each week of the sew along. I believe that this is week #2. Here's the link to the schedule, if you're interested.

  Sounds like lots of sewing fun, doesn't it?

The sew along is hosted by Lindsey of  LRstitched and Debbie of  A Quilter's Table. 

Thanks so much Lindsey and Debbie!

Even if you're not sewing along with everyone, you might be interested to see what everyone is making...   You can follow the sew along on:

flickr

facebook

Threadbias

Pinterest

and Instagram, hashtag #patchworkplease



Nothing like mixing in some small, quick sewing projects between the quilts I've got on the go!  Besides just mention patchwork and linen and I'm yours. ;o)  It may be the most irresistible combination I can think of.  :o)