WIP Wednesday: new projects galore...

Right I have officially got too many projects on the go as of this week. Although I've pretty much sorted my 1/4" seam issues as a result of some of these blocks.

I made the first Modern BOM block earlier this week:

I also made the first three of my Japanese sampler blocks:

I finished my Charmed prints quilt top.

And I have started (and sandwiched) my Boys at play quilt:

And I have actually gotten (a small amount of) sleep somewhere around all of that. Believe it or not, it's pretty much only of a night that I get quilty things done!

I'm linking up to the small blog meet over at Lily's Quilts - I would love to make some new quilty friends :)

Japanese Sampler Block 1 & 2 Test Run

After making my feature blocks for the Charmed Prints QAL, and each of them finishing at about 4 7/8" instead of 5" I have been trying to work out where I've been losing seam allowance. In all the other quilts I've made it hasn't mattered (square in a square's still line up, and wonky blocks I've sashed to bring up to size anyway.)

So I did this cool little tutorial over at Amy's Creative Side and I've discovered it's not my sewing machine (the seams really are exactly 1/4") - its my pressing that's the problem. And if I press the seams OPEN instead of to the side, things seem to work much better - so that's what I'll be doing from now on me thinks.

Anyhoo, I'd already made these two blocks before doing my little experiment so they don't measure 9 1/2" as they're supposed to - so I think I'll redo them and make these into a cushion (cos I really love them despite their not-quite-perfectness)

Simple Fives (Yosegi gokuzushi)

Simple pairs (yosegi nikuzushi)

I'll hopefully have some accurate blocks done tonight!

Happy stitching, 

Jess

Decision, decisions...

I spend the last couple of hours sorting out my fabric stash (into colour groups) and trying to pick out some fabric to make my Summer Sampler  quilt from - and I just can't narrow it down enough - so I'm left with:

Goldenrod/yellow/orange group (yes I am finally going to use some of my Echo!) - Echo, some Oliver & S, Silent Cinema and a few Kona solids

Greys - lots of Echo, Saffron Craig, Kona greys, Metro Living

Blues - DSQ, metro living and tea garden print (I think?) - plus some tufted tweets in blue and possibly some Saffron Craig bird tree

Greens - DSQ, tufted tweets, metro living, pearl bracelet and african leaves

Not sure if I'll use some or all of these yet - I will just make each block and see how it goes! I'm going to use medium grey as my background I think...

I think at the same time as I'm doing the Summer Sampler I am going to start my Japanese sampler quilt (I will be posting tutorials as I go for these - starting easy and working my way up to some more tricky blocks). I'll be using some of the same fabrics, but only in grey and goldenrod with a few bursts of aqua.

Can't wait to start! Just want to finish off my Charmed prints QAL quilt first and then I'll be into it :)

happy stitching, 

Jess