In between getting ready for our Modern Irish Quilters Sewing Day this past weekend, I have been preparing samples for a Quilt-As-You-Go class showing the ticker tape process and using scraps to make a wall hanging like Wilbur and QAYG panels like this version of a pattern by Stitched in Color called Bottled Rainbows.
Rachel's pattern uses 16 rectangles to make up the quilt. I'm using 9 bigger square blocks measuring 20" square. I don't have as much variety in my scraps to get panels of both orange and tangerine so I've tried to come up with 9 colours I think work well together and pick scraps that live in that colour family that go well together.
Not having that many yellow scraps I've included some gold and browns.
I'm hoping this will be a handy quilt to use for teaching the colour wheel for the Rainbow Rose quilt in April too and I like it's bright and happy feel. Hard to resist a rainbow!
The other project I'm working on is for Aurora, a co-exhibition between the Irish Patchwork Society and the Northern Ireland Patchwork Guild. Inspired by these photos by Mike Taylor which shows how digital cameras are capturing intense colours when photographing the Aurora Borealis, I tried to pull fabrics from my stash that matched that intensity.
To give it a bit more impact I've made Dresden blades by resizing templates from Aneela Hooeys Bloom pattern.
I'm really liking this colour combo against the dark blue background fabric.
And while I've been so busy Maggie has been in chewing mode so I've had to keep the dogs far from my end of the kitchen where I sew. She has quite a few toys but still manages to eat what she shouldn't.
I normally have Charly beside me while I work and Wilbur finds the comfiest spot to snooze on but if Charly is with me Maggie wants to be too and gets bored, poor pup. So in fairness I have them all barred from the sewing space and Charly is not one bit impressed.
Can't blame her, Maggie destroyed her bed while I was out at our Modern Quilters Sewing Day and its G's fault as he had a nice lie in and left them to their own devices! Just as well the daylight is getting longer as we need to walk the legs off the pup and do more training with her to get rid of some of that excess energy. Busy, busy weeks ahead.
I was thinking of making Charly her own dog bed but I might just wait a while yet!
I think the colors you blended together for the orange and yellow panels work well. The group photo shows a very cohesive grouping. And getting pups not to chew and destroy things can be a challenge - going on walks to "walk their legs off" sounds like a great solution. My husband and I had a dog early in our marriage and I can still hear the sound of him eating the stuffing out of our sofa cushion. He had kindly unzipped the fabric lining, so it was an easy fix (silly dog).
ReplyDeleteBeing a puppy is hard. Being a senior dog with a puppy can be even harder I think :) Hopefully, the longer days and more walks will help to calm Maggie down a bit. We were lucky that when our boys where pups they didn't chew on things that much. I can only imagine the things they would have destroyed. I'm loving your fabric pull for the Aurora project and look forward to seeing how it progresses.
ReplyDeletelove the bottled rainbows quilt! that's been on my quilty bucket list for years. I'm not usually a fan of Dresdens, but I like these!
ReplyDeleteThose colours are wonderful! I used to put Hank in a puppy pen with a frozen peanut butter Kong for a while if I wanted to sew, and occasionally gave him run of the room but he liked to chew my chair and stuff so I would also sew with him sat on my knee (and then he would go to sleep, didn't stay small long enough though). Sometimes when he was teething I'd knot some treats into a long scrap of fabric so he would chew that instead. He grew out of it as soon as he finished teething thankfully. I think I was lucky (though he still tries to sit on my knee at 3 years old and he's taller than me on two legs now).
ReplyDeleteGosh your quilt is going to be super colourful! Very pretty selection too.
ReplyDeleteI love your tick-a-tape blocks; your colour selection is perfect.
ReplyDeleteI really like how that tinker tape blocks are framed with the color border, it really grounds them and adds such a punch of color.
ReplyDeleteYour color choices just so strike a chord with me, Ruth! Looking forward to your ticker tape workshop and to seeing your quilt in the exhibition.
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