Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Sew Cute Tuesday, July 19

TURNSTILE FINALLY DONE
In my previous post at RSC16 I showed two mockup versions of Turnstile to ask for opinions whether to go for a black dotted background or light pink with flowers.  Most people liked the more modern black look, but it seemed too harsh for my taste.  My final choice, suggested by some folks, was purple, which I am happy with.


Thanks for all the input, dear friends.  And thanks to Alyce and her Modern HST Sampler for giving me this fine practice in HST designs.  

MY FAVORITE SCRAP PROJECT AND WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

First of all I have to admit that I do not have pounds and acres of scraps as some of you long time scrap collectors do.  I have lots of yardage, fat quarters and other pre-cuts  especially jelly roll strips and charms. My actual crumb collection is what you see here. It doesn't even fill a quart-size bag.


I do have larger sizes organized and ready to use or cut down, but they are not truly scraps.

One of my monthly goals this year is to make an 8.5-inch slab block using the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors of the month.  For some reason I always do my other blocks first, like the Twinkler and the sailboat, but I keep putting this one off.  Maybe my excuse is to use the other pieces first and use the leftovers for this block.

However, an interesting thing has been happening since I learned about slab blocks from Joy at The Joyful Quilter.  They seem to fit my more architectural leaning than real scrap quilts as of old.  I love the riot of colors, but I prefer structure rather than randomness.  This has all gelled in my mind in the last few months.

These are my first four slab blocks for the year.


Obviously they are mostly rectangular and becoming more focused on a theme or fussy cut block like the flowers.

Each month I have put more time into thinking about them and not doing anything randomly.  I realize now that they have become improv blocks, if there is an actual definition of one.  To me it  does not involve a pattern, but grows organically as I play and make choices.  Playing is sometimes hard work.

Here is the improv block for May, using green, but brighter greens and bits of other colors.  I call it A Gathering Of Doves.


My June improv block started with a flower iwith hints of aqua, the main color.  It evolved by balancing that orange with a pink little building, adding floral fabrics and even a piece of Ruby chard stems as tree branches.  It became The Neighborhood Flower Shop.


Does any of this make sense to you?  I felt a need to post these thoughts and photos to illustrate the process of improv, at least in my thinking.  And it definitely does us my scraps and crumbs.  Now I need to get busy on the next Modern HST Sampler and my July improv block.

JOIN IN THE FUN AT

Rainbow Scrap Challenge at soscrappy
Modern HST Sampler at  Blossom Heart Quilts

3 comments:

  1. What fun colours. It is great to see all the different versions.

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  2. the purple works so well great choice

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  3. I have way too many scraps. The more I sew, the more scraps I seem to make, even if I'm sewing with scraps to begin with! Keep making blocks and you'll have more scraps, trust me. =) I'm not opposed to creating scraps by cutting charm packs or layer cakes, but I haven't had to do that in a long time, so you'll reach that point, too! The log cabin blocks are also good for that kind of construction scrappy block. I have done regular log cabins (see my snowball logs recently posted), squares (also recently posted - during July, both of them) and I still have to take the ones that are just random and put them together. I call them beepies, because they are bits and pieces of things - b + p=beepies. And I don't use crumbs. I was really getting carried away and now I don't save anything narrower than 1.5" or smaller than 1.5" squares. That emptied out about a shoebox of scraps! a drop in the bucket LOL The green slab is my favorite - but green would be. =)

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