Baby it's cold outside and SEVEN more Lazy Punk blocks!

Baby it’s cold outside! Last night the temperature dipped to 4^oC which is about 39^oF! Chilly but I love it! I threw open the windows and put one more quilt on the bed, Butterscotch Ripple. It was bliss - cold air and a warm quilt. Even Forest Gumby was cold so he spent the night on my bed on the new quilt! I love the feel of a freshly machine quilted quilt. They are stiff but gradually soften up.

And when I got up, Gump decided to have a lay in on the warm spot! Life is good when you are loved and have a warm quilt.

 

 Last night my fingers were flying and I managed to appliqué seven blocks for my Lazy Punk quilt which was inspired by Jennifer Kingwell's Steam Punk quilt. And here are the first five of the seven. They all need a good press and a trim but you get the idea. They will all be set on point which means some of the motifs in the hub cap centres look like they are on their sides. They will be correct when they are on point.

And here are the sixth and seventh. I may make some revisions to these two block but I'll wait a little bit before I decide. I like to have some "uglies" in a quilt and the first of the two blocks ticks that box! I am not happy with the wedge made of striped fabric in the lower right corner but it does look better on point.  The arcs are all the same fabric, a blue bookbinder print but it is a drab section of the print on the striped wedge so I might just replace the arc with a brighter blue. And I might do something with the hub cap.

I do like this next block but the hub cap is a bit of a snooze fest! What I've been doing with boring centres is creating a compound hub cap.

I started with this fabric which I really like but when it was placed in the centre of a block it too was boring. I resolved this by fussy cutting a centre from another fabric to make a compound hub cap.

And this is the compound hub cap. Much better. And that is what I might do with the last two blocks I showed you. We'll just have to wait and see!

That's it for today. I will be away for the next two days but will try to post if I can but I can't promise.

Better pictures of 81 the giant monstrosity and a new project

I managed to find a truck and two men so I could take a picture of the giant monstrosity I call "81".  You really need a quilter to hang a quilt. The men were kind enough to oblige so I didn't want to complain but I would have put the truck in a different place, where the lighting was softer, so that the colours in the quilt top would have been brighter. I did ask them to stretch it out and hold it snuggly so that it was flat - the following picture was what I ended up with. But as I say they were trying to be helpful so I just went with it. The colours are bleached out!

I decided that this morning I would go out in the garden and try to get a better picture by tacking the quilt top to the beams in the arbour and that's exactly what I did. I got a box of tacks, a ladder and I went at it. It was overcast when I started - perfect weather for picture taking but by the time the quilt top was hung the clouds were breaking up and the sun was coming out. This is the best I could do.

"81" (the giant monstrosity)

Here you can see the centre panel (with 81 stars and hexagon flowers) and the basket border. The colours still aren't right in the picture but they are better.

This is the upper right hand corner with the diamond border. I added a cornerstone in each corner and appliqued a butterfly in each.

This is the top border with baskets, flowers and oodles of butterflies!

Now I am casting my eyes about for another project that involves handwork. Last year I promised someone special a quilt but never got around to it. She gently reminded me that I still owe her a quilt so I had better do something about it. I am intrigued by Jen Kingwell's Steam Punk quilt.

These blocks are all pieced and that just doesn't interest me - I want something portable that involves handwork. So I'm thinking I might work out a "lazy girl" version. I've told you more than once that if there's an easier way to do something I'll try to find it! As I look at this quilt I know that there is a much easier way to make a similar quilt so today I think I'll work on drafting a simple pattern and then get started on a simplified version of this quilt. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Until I post again, happy sewing!