Thoroughly Modern Maples (Marrakech Edition)

It's autumn.  My favourite season. It always has been - from my childhood when I grew up in leafy Warwickshire to my life now when it signals the end at last to months of extreme heat.

Back in April, I asked my wonderful Stitch Tease gals to make maple blocks for my second round. I wanted my own bit of fall in a country where there are only two seasons.

I suggested this tutorial for a 12¨ finished block but left them to make smaller blocks if they preferred.

There are some great variations in Lynne and Kerry's 500 Quilt Blocks. I asked for one block in traditional fall colours and the second in jewel tones - both scrappy with low volume backgrounds.

They sent the most beautiful blocks but summer quickly arrived and they were packed away.

Before we left for England in August, I made some improv. pieced low volume filler blocks and assembled them with the maple blocks in a random arrangement to give the impression of falling leaves.

Fast forward to last month when I basted and quilted it using organic wavy overlapping vertical rows every couple of inches. The batting is my favourite Dream Orient - it has a beautiful drape.

The backing is something I picked up in a Pink Castle $6 yard sale - it's Honeycomb in Sunglow by Freespirit and is very pretty. The binding is a yellow chevron. I wanted a paleish binding which allowed the leaves to be free rather than a dark binding which would frame them.

There was a bit of 'accidental perfection' with the last mitered corner.

Thank you so much to my bee mates Helen, Hadley, Susan, Katy, Ange, Di, Dianne, Val, Cindy, Jennifer and Trina for the beautiful blocks they made.

Now I have my small bit of fall - Marrakech style!

We're now in the third round of Stitch Tease and it was my month again in September. The blocks have started to arrive and they are amazing. I may have caused my bee mates some pain in making them for which I'm sorry - I'll show you them another day and the colour palette may surprise you!

For now I shall link up with Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day.

Bee Frazzled

It's October and round here that means one thing...cooler temperatures! Not that they are here yet...

September was a bit of a frustrating month for me sewingwise as I was behind from the start, lacked momentum for most of the month and really only found my rhythm in the last few days.

There were bee blocks to be made of course.

I had Jennifer's Stitch Tease bee blocks for August *blush* to make.  She asked for Arkansas Traveler blocks (far right) in hummingbird colours against a dark grey background. We used this super straightforward tutorial by Lee and the block came together with no difficulty.  The only problem was that the background was paper pieced and there was a lot of wastage so using the cutting instructions I got through a whole FQ for one block! The diamonds for the second block are made, so once new fabric supplies arrive, they will be off to Jennifer.

Hadley was Queen Bee in September's Stitch Tease and asked for 49 patch blocks using low volume in one block and aqua, deep pink, dark grey and low volume in the second block.  Now these was easy to put together but only once I had found the fabrics, which was challenging to say the least! She is going to have the most beautiful quilt.

A few months ago, Rhonda asked if I would join her Modern Stitching Bee and seeing who was in it I jumped at the chance. Leanne was first up for the new round and asked for square within a square blocks and QST blocks. She asked for fussy cuts in pinks, acid greens, aquas, zesty oranges and lemons and juicy purples. For the QST blocks, Leanne wanted prints which would read as horizontal lines - this challenged not only my fabric choices but my brain in correctly positioning the components of the block and let's just say there was seam ripping and then some!

Determined to do better this month, I decided to get on with Emily's blocks for the Modern Stitching Bee. Emily asked for log cabins using a little red, yellow and green surrounded by navy and low volume fabrics. While I didn't repeat within each block, there are some repeats within the second block but I'm hoping that with some careful positioning they will fit in nicely. Another beautiful quilt me thinks.

A couple of bees wind up this month and I won't be joining in any Round 2s. I need to lessen my bee commitments and concentrate on just a couple.  If you hear me joining another you have permission to shout at me!

Annabella

Sew Slow

Many many moons ago, I ordered the Camelot circular quilt block pattern after seeing Nicolette's beautiful blocks. I tried a block but didn't add a seam allowance and machine pieced it not realizing that it was really intended to be a hand sewing project.  I didn't like the block and put the pattern away.  

Yesterday, Alison inspired me to do some some different hand stitching from my EPP hexies (after I saw this post).  It really inspired me to do some hand piecing and so I dug out the pattern and some template plastic and made Block 1 (it looked the easiest). 

I feel like I may have conquered inset seams.

Block 1 Camelot quilt

The actual cutting of fabric takes longer than the hand piecing or so it seems, so I think this will be a block or two a month - if I'm lucky!

I want to make this from scraps and my low volume layer cake from Rebecca's recent swap - once they arrive!

Modern? Modernitional? Tramodernal?

Do you consider yourself a modern quilter, a traditional quilter or a bit of both? This seems to be a hot topic at the moment. If you're the latter like me then I like to refer to us as tramodernal.  At the start of my quilting journey I definitely wanted to think of myself as a modern quilter but as time has gone on I have become increasingly inspired by more traditional blocks.

I'm excited to share with you a project I worked on last month. Back in January, the Fat Quarterly team put a call out for people to take part in the next edition's designer challenge - to use a traditional block and make it modern.  I've always loved the Blockade block - a Civil War block, ever since I made this one.  It remains to this day an orphan and this is a reminder that I need to do something with it!

For the challenge I decided to make a cushion using some Chicopee and low volume fabrics. As I had a huge 22" cushion insert, I decided to go bigger and influenced by all the gorgeous medallion quilts being made, I added a clockwise 'circle' of flying geese - another traditional block which I only made for the first time this year.

Who would have thought Chicopee fitted in so well with our Moroccan floor tiles?

Issue 13 of Fat Quarterly is out now and it's full of seriously gorgeous tramodernal projects - and you can see how I made my cushion. So go have a look - you might be inspired!

Linking up with the Let's Get Aquainted Link-Up, which this week is being hosted by Kirsten.

Be Still My Beating Heart

The fabric mule (my lovely mum) arrived last night for an earlier than scheduled 10 day visit and I've had fun unpacking the fabric, thread and batting.  But best of all, The Simple Love quilt has come to live with me!

A couple of weeks ago on St.Valentine's, the lovely Nat at Made in Home posted pictures of her Simple Love quilt - a quilt she had made for a photo shoot with her beautiful 2 month old boy for thank you cards.

Now despite those beautiful pops of pixelated reds against the gorgeous low value charms, Nat confessed that she wasn't really feeling the love.  I know. She posed the thought that perhaps it would be good for a giveaway.  I cheekily suggested that yes, she should just give it to me. And she did!

Now I'll confess that despite the photos of Baby MIH on the quilt, I thought the quilt was a mini - kind of wall hanging size but as you can see from the picture above that it's big!

This is the softest quilt I have ever felt.  It's truly beautiful.  Nat kept the quilting to a minimum with some red hand stitching around the heart blocks - just perfect.

The binding is Liberty and the backing has some lovely red Gingham and more of those lovely charms.

I am so thrilled that Nat sent me this quilt - she said she wanted a home where it will be loved and I can promise that in bucketloads. Now it wouldn't be fair if Nat wasn't to get something in return and I'm hatching a plan - thank you Nat!!