Wednesday, October 31, 2007

A different colourway

Monday saw the kids back to school and Nigel back to work.

Yesterday I returned to my school as I don't often work Mondays, but I was still in sewing mode and would much rather have been at home slaving over a hot sewing machine and ironing board than in work pushing bits of paper round my desk. So I did manage quite a bit of piecing on Spencer's I Spy blocks both before I set off to work and once I got home in the afternoon.

Usually I'm a bit of a time waster when I just have a small window of say 30 minutes, I get easily sidetracked and waste time putting off getting on with something productive, however yesterday I had half an hour in the morning and about an hour and a half in the afternoon - this enabled me to get another 16 blocks pieced - that's 26 out of 36 done now.

But then once the kids came home that old 'butterfly syndrome' came over me

"What would this I Spy block look like in a different colourway?" I said to myself. No ability to stay on task here!

It's my sister's birthday in just over two weeks time.
Now I did buy the Laurel Burch horse fabric and matching Rowans in the summer to make her a lap quilt. I had thought about using it to do sawtooth star blocks but that's way too time consuming. However as I have absolutely nothing to do stitching wise at present (loud guffaws echo round blogland at this point) can I possibly make her a 25 block quilt using this block pattern in time for her special day?

Well I did a trial run with a couple of blocks to see if I like them.

The jury's still out on this - I'm unsure about the burgundy for the background - it probably looks strange to me because I've used a bright white in the pattern before.

I do quite like it though and think it will make a softer more subtle quilt - what do you all think?

The one observation I will make is that the Rowan fabrics are an absolute pig to work with - they are fairly loose weave and courser than usual patchwork fabric so don't cut or press nice and crisp - making 25 of these (that means 23 more) and then sashing them might be more than my soul can stand!
Only time will tell.................

7 comments:

Clare said...

I like the burgundy, but with the beige coloured fabric, not the other one, but that may be cos it's the first one I saw.

Katie said...

I like the one with the beige/yellow rather than white. But either one would make a striking quilt.

meggie said...

I dont know that the colours are showing true, here. I couldn't decide.

loulee said...

Why are there loud guffaws going around blogland? (All innocent like) ;-)

Tanya said...

You're right. I can't believe you didn't have anything else to sew!
The blocks are beautiful! The burgandy picks up the colors of the horses nicely.

YankeeQuilter said...

I hate it when the fabric you like the design of isn't comfortable to work with. I have a half made quilt top using some French Market fabric that I only accidentally found out would shrink 10% and look totally different when washed (I guess I should thank Brownie for tipping over my cup of tea on a quilt block!)

KC Quilter said...

Oooohh, that Laurel Burch horse print will be beautiful in a quilt. Can't wait to see what you come up with!