Fright Nite - the Sequel!

More background fabric arrived from Mandy at Simply Solids - more of that blood curdling Kona Ruby Red.

So I have been finishing off the rest of my greek cross blocks in the Across the Sea Quiltalong.  Not without a hiccup or two as I blithely joined all my centre squares to a background square....and even started adding a few background squares to the other side before I noticed I'd gone wrong!  Aggh!  

Unpick 16 squares - engage brain and try again.  Still managed to get some directional fabrics for the arms of the cross upside down so more unpicking required.   

Finally before the school run all 20 blocks were completed!  As you can see....

Here are some of my favourite blocks

Why did I buy a metre of that fabric with hands on it?  No idea but it is creepy enough to fit in this quilt.  

All this fabric is from stash apart from the Kona ruby red! I still have quite a bit of Hallowe'en fabric left so if you know of any other Hallowe'en makes be sure to let me know and if you can put a link in with your comment!

Thank Peeps you are the best!

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the supportive messages and advice we have had.  Yesterday we cried, we hugged, we sighed, we remembered and we laughed.  Hopefully we can go on remembering Emily as she was - a lovely cat and friend to Clarissa most of all!


Helen from Archie the wonder dog has come up with a very useful suggestion - a posting box or book so that any worries your child has can be posted or written down to be looked at with mum (or dad) at the end of an agreed period of time to review the situation - is this still a worry, has it already resolved itself, what can we do about it now?  Maybe useful to some of you out there.....!  


Clarissa is also starting a new school  next week - so it's an anxious time for her anyway!  Thanks very much Helen I will suggest it to Clarissa and see how she feels about it!


As to what else I have done - I have cut out some material according to the instructions for the Across the Sea QAL - and more than that I have started putting the blocks together. 


Now I was doing a baby quilt using this fabric

But now I'm doing a lap quilt using this

Why the change?  Well I don't have enough of that gorgeous background fabric to make all the blocks and having pondered about a multi coloured background I decided I wanted to stick with the original plan - so I will be waiting for more fabric and am not sure when it will be coming.  For the back of the quilt I have decided to go with white as the background so will join in then as I have quite a bit of white! And have more on order...




So rather than wait and perhaps miss out on the fun I decided to do a Fright Nite lap quilt to put over your head when scary movies come on!  I am sure it will get plenty of use watching the new series of Doctor Who alone,  but being the tinkerer I am, I am tweaking the blocks and the layout and the border!  I am sorry Jennifer and Sarah I just cannot stop meddling!

Was thinking of going with the second layout on this side of the lap quilt as I can pack more of those greek crosses and scary fabrics in but now I look at the photos I am not so sure actually!   But I do adore the blood curdling Kona Ruby Red solid - isn't it yummy!  Great for those knife wielding scenes in the shower or the birthing of a little alien or two!  


Honestly I am far too much of a wimp to watch horror films and Dr Who is about as scary as I will watch! 






I will go back to the original design for the baby quilt with cute whales on it....I promise the Fright Nite Quilt is NOT for the baby!   Any views on the layout anyone?


Thanks again for the comments - they were especially appreciated at this time.

Plaid String-along! going strong...

I have been beavering away in the background with my string plaid blocks lagging behind the very quick Juliekquilts - she has probably completely finished her quilt by now.


Here is my first block  

 I then went onto make five more blocks along the same lines.  So far so good!  On my list of things to buy at the FoQ was some pale yellow for my sashing.  I did find some

But I also found that yellow and grey fabric... and so looking again at my plaid string blocks I decided I didn't like the cornerstones fabric I had sewn into six blocks in this quilt.  So while watching a film I unpicked all six cornerstones and have been putting the yellow and grey fabric in instead!  Grrr!




At this point I just needed six more quarter blocks to finish.  How could I resist the challenge?  I find the fairly mindless activity of string piecing quite therapeutic as I listen to some radio book on my laptop, cup of tea by my side and cat asleep on the bed!


So this centre section of the top is finished!  Yeah!  

Here is the back of the quilt - you can see I am using telephone directory papers as my foundation!  Wonder if the children or cats will help me when it comes to removing those?  I have removed them from one block but found that one so stretchy that I left the others in.  

When is the best time to take them out?   I was going with idea of taking them out when everything is sashed round all the edges so a narrow grey sashing might be my next move.

But what shall I do for borders???  The original quilt had a piano key border followed by a repeat of the sashing.  


I think I need to consult my latest second hand book as recommended by no less than the lovely Lynne from Lily's Quilts:  Pieced Borders, the complete resource by Judy Martin and Marsha McCloskey! 

 Unless you have any suggestions....?

FWQ 18 blocks!

I forgot to do my Farmer's Wife blocks last week so I am playing catch up here.


I have done three blocks to get up to the correct number - I had also done three blocks two weeks ago.  So I have a total of 18 blocks.


After all those Spool and Churndash blocks my first two blocks were an obvious choice

Then I did a block I have always had a great affection for - the Friendship Star!

And here are the eighteen blocks together..

Has anyone thought of how they are setting their blocks?  I know they are on point but I haven't really thought about my sashing yet.  I will think about that this week - perhaps the very lovely Kona snow will help calm down my patterns and lift some of those darker colours....!




Nicky

Farmer's Wife 7

Is it week 7 already? 



Here are my blocks this week

The periwinkle block - a bit like the flower shape I suppose  

 OK why is this one called the box?

Honeycomb - I get that one  

Three blocks this time so I could but them all together for this photo 

 

Is this coming together?  Will it gel?  What do I need more of?

Any suggestions gratefully received as I am sort of out of my comfort zone with these fabrics and such a range of colours - so don't leave me stranded!  

Think I also need to try some more complicated blocks next - don't want them all at the end.

Nicky 

Farmer's Wife Post 6

Here I am again with my plaid and funky flower blocks for week 6

Block no 58 Mother's Dream

I know it doesn't look like it but the middle square and the pink and black end rectangles are all from the same piece of fabric.

and block 21 Contrary Wife

Think the title of this one refers to me....but anyway I am really pleased with how these two have turned out! 




Seem to be going down the pink and blue route...




Hope you like them too!  And that your own blocks are going well






Nicky

Farmer's Wife Post 5

Here is my Farmer's Wife post no 5.  


I have been disappointed with a couple of blocks so I have fiddled with them a bit and hope you agree that they look better now






Block 88 Star of Hope before

and after

Block 4 Basketweave before 

after

And here are this week's newbies


Block 16 Calico Puzzle

and Block 1 Attic Windows

Now all of a sudden I seem to be going very blue.  I wonder which colour will feature next?


How are you getting on with your blocks?  I hope I am getting better at putting the fabrics together and constructing the blocks...have to say they are getting quite addictive!  


Nicky

Farmer's Wife Post 4

Onto the fourth post of the Farmer's Wife quilt along - and some more complicated blocks with more HSTs. 


Have to say I am not really loving these and am considering a re-think on the concept of plaids and funky florals.   May have to be either plaid or floral and something else as I do not seem to have much value difference in my blocks, which was something else I wanted to explore in this quilt along.  


Oh well I do quite like the ugly block look in antique quilts so a few yucky ones will be ok but I do not want to end up with an ugly quilt...?

Block 88 Star of Hope

and Block 93 Swallow

and here are my eight blocks all together

At least the colours seem better balanced with a bit more blue as I was thinking I had gone too pink.  But now I need to work on more value contrast I think.  


This is certainly a learning process...


Nicky

Farmer's Wife post 3

Here I am in my third post on the Farmer's Wife, trying to catch up a bit,
and still having fun combining florals and stripes/plaids for my funky, country look.



Block no 15 Buzzard's roost

Block no 3 Basket 

My six blocks so far

Need to do less pink I feel...  Oh well plenty more to go!




Nicky

Farmer's Wife 2

My next two blocks are completed.


I have done the easy Basketweave block no 4 - the dotty fabric is actually sage green but shows up differently on my laptop 

and Economy block no 31

Here are my four blocks together

I seem to have a lot of pink/red and my poor bottom left block seems to be overwhelmed a bit at the moment.  Time will tell....




Nicky


Previous post on Farmer's wife


http://mrsssewandsow.blogspot.com/2011/06/farmers-wife-im-jumping-in-with-welly.html

Farmer's Wife - I'm jumping in with welly boots on!

I know I've been saying no new big projects until my UFOs are complete but now you know why I keep saying it - I am trying to keep myself in line when what I really want to do is jump on the next thing that comes along.


I have picked this book up several times and put it back down again but when I saw that Lynne from Lilysquilts had committed to joining in a quilt along using the Farmer's Wife book (available here!) using brighter fabrics my will power just threw in the towel, my resistance melted away and I had ordered the book before I knew it!   

The quilt along is being hosted by Angela from Fussy Cut and Amanda at Msmcporkchopquilts.  The Flickr group is here: Farmer's Wife Quilt flickrgroup

You probably already know all of this as there are lots of bloggers joining in on this one. 

I have never done a quilt along before so this is scary new territory to me but I have just received my copy of the book and I am throwing caution to the wind.

There are 111 blocks, some quite simple and all are 6" square!  The challenge is to complete 2 per week so here are my first two

Puss in the Corner

Autumn Tints  

The unpick gadget got a lot of use with this one before I was happy enough with this simple little block - eek - what will I do when I get to the difficult ones???

During this challenge I will be trying to learn more about value of fabrics and given that the book is called Farmer's Wife I want to introduce something of the countryside into my blocks but with a brighter colourway so I am cutting up my collection of plaids and hope to build my blocks around them and some funky florals.  

Nicky