Grecian Waters HSTs - Return of a WIP #2

I'd like to say thank you to all of you who were as thrilled as myself to see this quilt return and have made useful suggestions helping me with my colour choice dilemma as well as providing creative input - looking at you Molli.

To avoid buying more fabric than necessary I trialled Kona charms from the dark palette.

I'm drawn to the less purply, less blue, less dark colours so these three are out: purple, midnight, raisin.

These two are much closer: eggplant (left) and hibiscus (right). Surprise surprise, they're both from my original set of choices! Guess somebody might be a little bit biased...

Berry, number three, isn't part of the charm pack but I'm now convinced it's a tad too light anyway. The picture doesn't capture the colours perfectly, meh, but they do look great in daylight. Both are sizzling contenders, however, I have made a decision and will be ordering yardage soon to keep this project going. Stay tuned to find out which one made the cut!

Happy sewing!

Grecian Waters HSTs - Return of a WIP

Does this picture remind you of an old project of mine?

Well, if it does, you sure aren't wrong. In late winter 2012 I started my first (and so far only) all solids quilt with a FQ bundle in my favourite colours that I'd got for Christmas. In a sewing frenzy I managed to finish the HST top just in time to enter it in the Emerald Quilt Challenge at a²(w), top only category, and placed second. Whooo, that was so exciting.

My plans for finishing this beauty included lots of handquilting with blue and aqua threads and, unfortunately, an utter indecisiveness whether I liked the size as it is -  approx. 1,42 m x 1,86 m (56'' x 73'') - or would prefer adding a border to make it bigger, especially wider. So I got sidetracked. For a long long time.

Now, however, is the time to revive this WIP, all due to a lovely project by Molli Sparkles. Back in the day I'd considered adding a border in Kona Sage, thus picking up the "dominant" colour in the top, the one of the hearts. Molli's squares and prepped fabrics have altered my mind, though. I've fallen heavily for the teal/lilac combo and am determined to choose a solid from the purple spectrum to add some spark and unexpected warmth which will contrast with the cooler aquas and greens. Im thinking about 20 to 25 cm each side to bring the quilt to a snuggly 1,80 m x 2,20 m (71'' x 86,6''). I think a purple colour will also make for a great backing to which I could add single leftover HST blocks.

So much for inspiration and excited plans. But which colour will it be? I'm drawn to a darker tone such as Berry, Hibiscus, or Eggplant to play up the contrast but have trouble making up my mind. Haha. Let's hope this doesn't turn into a stashed-away WIP again so soon after its resuscitation.

Happy sewing!

Lucky HSTs

This is too good to be true, can somebody pinch me, please? My HST quilt top placed second in the Just the Top category of the Emerald Quilt Challenge over at a.squared.w. Wow, this is the first time I entered anything anywhere and I'm so excited and bursting with happiness.

I want to thank Sarah and Fiona, especially, for encouraging me to take part in the challenge. Not only had I not known about it, but I seriously doubt I would have entered without your kind words of encouragement. Sarah, you've also egged me on to finish the top in time. Fiona, you kept me level-headed. Perfect mixture for me. Thanks, ladies!

And thank you to everybody else who has been following along with the top's journey. Sharing this one with you has been so much fun and I'm still flabbergasted, but obviously overjoyed, by the amount of love it receives.

I can't wait to continue this one, see where it takes me, and take you along for the ride. The quilting should be a ton of fun and I'm planning a mixture of machine and hand quilting as soon as I can afford batting. Thanks to the sponsors and Ali I can definitely afford the backing and binding fabric now - what to pick?? Just a solid? A print? A solid combined with my 36 leftover HSTs?

Stay tuned, folks. And please check out everbody else's entries, not just the winners. Competition was definitely tough and inspiring!

Happy sewing and a most wonderful weekend!

Emerald Quilt Challenge (Pictures Galore)

I did it! I managed to finish my HST quilt top today and talked my sister into a photo session in the freezing cold. Finally a shoot outside - with all that can include. Neither her, nor me succeeded in displaying it well due to the wind.

We only found places to hang it from that wouldn't show it whole.

Or we put it upside down. (See me going "aargh".) Or it fell off all the time.

Though, once turned around and fixed, this proved a really pretty backdrop. The words read "For your and our freedom." It's part of a memorial to Polish soldiers and German anti-fascists / German-Polish friendship in the park. I think the hearts of my top are fitting.

I had spent Friday night crawling on the floor to find the right layout. I even got up after going to bed to exchange a block here and there for another. Crazy. None of my previous ideas convinced me enough but somehow I sneaked in something of them all. There's squares, chevrons, hearts I hadn't originally thought of, even meanders! It's both symmetric in design and all mixed up colour-wise. I love it! I used 14x18 squares in the end - 252 of the 288 I made. The current measurements are 1.42 m x 1.81 m (or 55 1/2 inches x 71 2/3 inches), the HSTs are 10 cm finished (just under 4").

Here are better looks at the complete layout. Shame the sun didn't play along for these.

Though I'll put it away to work on other pressing projects first, I'm soo looking forward to quilt this on the machine and by hand using the pretty pearl cotton set I bought in January. I think the layout provides me with a ton of options to make for really interesting quilting and highlights.

Here are a few more close-ups of design details which I took inside where it is warm and cosy.

I think the time-consuming squaring up really paid off! Most points are really really neat.

So, having been encouraged to do so (thanks!) I'm entering the Pantone 2013: Emerald Quilt Challenge. I hope with a ton of green (and actual emerald, too) and blues as the second colour, it fits the rules. Have I mentioned that I'm really happy with how this top in shades of my favourite colours has turned out? I doubt I'd show it off if I didn't.

Find all the other entries here.
Find the Flickr group here.

Happy sewing, friends, I hope your weekend was as fantastic as mine!


Linking to various cool link parties - Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link Up, Sew Cute Tuesday, Show & Tell Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday.

Ready to Go

My arms hurt but I did it - all 288 HSTs squared up.

A lot of what my sister calls fabric confetti.

Have a lovely weekend, everybody, and happy sewing!

Surefire Clues You Take Quilting Seriously

Instead of finalising the layout and sewing together your quilt top, you square up HSTs by tiny margins because you want really neat results. OCD.

What a difference...

After nearabouts three hours, I'm halfway through the pile and my joints need a break before tackling the rest.

Happy sewing!

W.i.P. - HST Love and Layout Woe

There's still time to enter my blogiversary giveaway!

I'm starting today's posts with the stats or they might get lost along the way.

Stats

Finishes - 1
the bathroom is all sorted (kitchen still pretty much a construction site)

Ongoing Projects - 3
EPP hexies - 52 finished flowers + 14 nearly-theres
baby things
Grecian Waters HST quilt

Stalled Projects - 1
EPP parallelograms/stars

Planning Stage - 2
Wedding Anniversary quilt
Quilt for the husband - I might have come up with the design! More on that soon.

But onto the HST love. Having finished 216 by yesterday, I prepared these for today before going to bed.

And got sewing in the morning.

Feast yourself on 288 HSTs in 96 different colour combinations.

 

They look rather intimidating like that. Maybe less so from this direction?

Or stacked?

 

Sorry, I got carried away... Time to speak about my layout woes.

I need to work on my bed as it's the only place providing enough space and my back doesn't want me crawling on the floor. Husband won't be happy if the bed is still diverted from its intended use when he gets home. I started with dark colours in the top left corner and light ones in the bottom right corner, but decided against doing a whole layout only to rearrange it. Lazy? Sensible? I don't know.

I'm stuck with a couple of variants. Do I go for a completely "patternless" look? And if so, do I start with dark on one end fading into light on the other? (I think this will take half a day to arrange pleasingly?) Or just mix it all up?

Or do I make something more regular, like these mixed up squares?

Or how about chevrons? From dark to light, here a light example? (Ignore the mistake in the top row.)

Or mixed up?

Decisions, decisions. And certainly no easy ones. I think there's one or two options I'm drawn to more, but I'd love to hear your opinions.

Over the past days it's been suggested to me twice that my quilt might qualify for the Pantone 2013 Emerald Quilt Challenge. I'm still unsure about it and I've never yet entered anything anywhere... Anybody else taking part? I'd certainly only manage the quilt top category - and only if I overcome my layout woes first.

Happy sewing!

A Very HST Saturday

If you're looking for the giveaway...

This is how I spent my Saturday morning.

You might recall that I ordered another half yard of Kona Sage. This is why I could combine every shade with it at least once.

One fat quarter yields twelve 5'' squares but there were 23 fat quarters in my bundle. So with another 24 out of my half yard and excluding sage/sage, I had 14 spare sage squares left to pair off. Tough decisions had to be made.

I picked the bottom ones and have now total number of 72 out of 300 HSTs.

Happy sewing!

Disclaimer: Like the first time I tried them, I made my HSTs following the tutorial over here but as my pictures show, I'm even lazier and not only didn't draw three lines but also chainpieced them twice.

Linking up with Show and Tell Tuesday over at Randi's.