Found my fabric, more Soupcon quilts, another hexie project and the next QAL

I found my fabric but it is a brown background rather than the paprika. Nonetheless it is gorgeous! I found it online at Alewives Fabrics. They have a lovely online shop with loads of wonderful fabrics and great customer service! I plan on shopping there in the future! Here is my fabric! Sooooo pretty - I adore those little birds! I've no idea what I'm going to make with this fabric (maybe a border for hexagon quilt) but it will come to me!

There are another couple of Soupcon quilt pictures on the Soupcon FLICKR Group. Nellie Durand has completed step 6 of Soupcon! Isn't it fabulous? She took my ideas and then put her personal touch each step of the way! Step 6 was the foundation paper pieced border and Nellie turned the spikes so that the pinks are pointing inward plus she added a pieced corner. I think I might just do some reverse sewing and add a pieced corner to my blue Soupcon! This is a really lovely quilt!

Jean Cockburn has completed Step 5 of her Soupcon and she also put her own personal stamp on the quilt but creating her own unique border. Nellie commented that the quilt makes her think of pink dogwoods which are about to bloom where she lives. It makes me think of pistachios!  It is a vibrant and exciting quilt. I love the little pop of pale green in the center! Jean has colour confidence and I truly admire that skill!

I found a little cardboard suitcase in a shop and thought it would make a perfect box for my newest project. What kind of project? Well here's the suitcase with some of the fabrics I pulled and there's a little window template that will be a hint about what I'm going to make!

This morning I was reading my blog feed an found an interesting post on Rossie Hutchinson's blog. She showed her finished quilt and linked back to how she made the blocks. You can see the quilt on her March 23 post. What I found most interesting was how she made the blocks. She used 5" charm squares and bleached the darker fabrics and dyed the lighter fabrics. Aren't these blocks fabulous? I love the effect she has achieved!

She explains the process here. I've never done any dying although I have used bleach to alter fabrics. I am really tempted to give this one a go when the weather gets better so that it can be done outside.

I've now finished my quilt top for the next quilt along (QAL), Value Proposition. My quilt is made of 1" hexies but there is no reason why you couldn't use a larger or smaller hexagons. There are 18 whole blocks (and some partial blocks) in the quilt and you will have your choice of a single path or a triple path between the blocks. I used a triple path and it created a secondary design that I think is lovely. I don't know about you but I find it so hard to wait a month for each block so I think I will publish a block every two weeks. Would that suit you? Each block will consist of  a center flower with two extra rounds of hexies. In the process I'll share some ideas for creating some interesting effects in you quilt. For example we will use applique, sew new fabric and we will create  our own prints! Sound interesting? I sure hope so! It won't be long until we get started!

Time for this lazy girl to get back to quilting her Lazy Girl quilt! Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H