Positivities - March block

We received the March block for the Positivities stitch along designed by Rachel Hauser.  It was a fun block to do; the center is paper pieced and the rest is done with templates.  The colour is a little off here as the 'blades' that are in the middle look dark blue, but they are actually dark green (pine).  Now we have to wait almost a month before the next month's pattern.

...and my block measures exactly 18 1/2"

I think the new block will go very nicely into the previous month's sections. 

 

Positivities Stitch along

 Rachel Hauser of Stitched in Colour is hosting another stitch along.  Ever since I did the Pas de Deux Quilt two years ago, I've been hoping she'd do another one.  I had purchased a bundle of Ruby Star Society half yards awhile ago and was saving it for another sew along.  And, in January, Rachel started another Stitch along called "Positivities".  We have received Jan and Feb's instructions.  (click on the photo to enlarge)

 

The center row of fabrics are the pieces from the bundle that I'm using for this quilt.  I found a Maria Horner fabric at my local quilt shop and purchased the rest of the bolt for backing.  Solids are used in the quilt and I matched up my choices to the pattern plan.  You then add scraps from your stash that work with it while doing each month's pattern.

Here is the first month's block.

Second month's section.

All the units together so far.

 Looking forward to March's pattern to add to my quilt!

Pas de Deux stitch along

 Last year, Rachel Hausser of Stitched in Colour, hosted a stitch along for a quilt she designed called "Pas de Deux".  I totally loved the colours she used and used similar colours from my stash for each section.  This quilt was a challenge and used many different techniques, from paper piecing, to piecing, to applique, y seams and inset seams.  It was amazing how the quilt came together at the end!  It was totally made from my scraps.  Here is the finished quilt with some closeup photos of the various sections. It was quilted by Chris Bogart.  Click on the photos to enlarge for a better view.

The finished quilt

I had a piece of an Anna Maria Horner print leftover from another quilt and pieced it for the backing.

 

A different challenge - a Pandemic Quilt

 In December of 2020, Rachel Hauser, of Stitched in Color" posted on her blog with a challenge to join her in making a quilt to reflect the many emotions of that year and presenting it to someone special.  Here is the initial blog post of the sew along she proposed:

 https://www.stitchedincolor.com/blog/2020/12/4/-healing-art-for-2020

Since we were in a pandemic and had lots of time on our hands, and I had lots of fabric, I thought I'd try my hands at this and make the quilt for my daughter in law, Becky, who works in a nursing home and has certainly dealt with many challenges!  At our ladies Bible study at Church, we were studying Nancy Guthrie's book, "Looking for Something Better" which is a study of the book of Hebrews. The first task was choosing fabrics for the various rows.  These were my final colour choices:

I didn't have quite enough of a few of the fabrics but a quick online purchase remedied that!

The final quilt.  It was presented to Becky in the summer of 2021.  I had taken pictures and couldn't find them back so finally got a few news ones!

The backing is a Kaffe Fasset print which I have had in my stash for awhile.

My friend, Chris Bogart quilted it with an angel wings pantograph which really suited it.

This photo shows the colours a bit better.

The label on the back of the quilt.

The Quilter's Field Guide to Colour part 3

Since today was a rainy day and it was Saturday, I played with more colour and continued making more bear paw blocks representing the rest of the seasons.  I did the spring blocks yesterday in this blog post.  It was a lot of fun rooting through my scraps (and a few special fabrics from my stash) and finding the right colours and moods for the swatches I chose to represent the various seasons.  Here are the results of today's fun.

(Click on the photos to enlarge.)

First half of the colours I picked for the four seasons

Second half of the colours for the seasons

Winter bear paw block

Fall bear paw block...I couldn't decide which colour to use for the paws so I did two.

Here are the summer blocks.  I made a mistake and cut too many paws so I cut more background and focus fabric since you can't have too much summer, right? ☺

Here are all my blocks so far.

The Quilter's Field Guide to Colour 2

This month's colour lesson from Rachel Hauser's book was linked to the colours of the seasons.  Take a look here for the first post on these exercises.  We had to take 8 different colour ways (one was neutrals) and choose a swatch from each colour to represent the four seasons.  And, then take the choices from the current season to make one or more bear paw blocks.  This is definitely more difficult that it looks at first glance!  First of all, there are all the decisions on sorting the colours into the proper groups.  Is this particular swatch purple, pink, red or orange?  Or maybe neutral?  I finally sorted all the colours into warm and cool groups first. I even got my colour wheel out to help me sort them out!  It was amazing matching up some fabrics to the spring row and finding the perfect ones!  These scraps were left over from a quilt I made for my granddaughter Emma called, Fancy Forest.   I ended up making four spring blocks using the same center focus fabric but different paws.

(click on the photos to enlarge)

First four colours

Second set of four colours

My rows of colours minus the ones used in this exercise

This focus fabric fit well with the green and pink and "sand" that I chose for my neutral

Loved how this fabric went so well with the spring fabrics (except the purple ☺

My four bear paw blocks.  Amazing how different that center fabric looks with the different coloured paws.

the blocks with last month's blocks

If I have a bit of free time before next month's exercise, I may try more blocks from the other seasons.

The Quilter's Field Guide to Colour

I recently bought "The Quilter's Field Guide to Colour", written by Rachel Hauser.  This is a very interesting book with colour swatches that you can cut apart and use to work on the colour exercises in the book.  She has a blog (click here).  She has started blogging some posts to work along with the book and try out making blocks using the colour exercises.  Blocks can be posted on Instagram, but since I don't have an Instagram account and can't open one on my desk top, and only have a cell phone for emergencies, I thought I'd blog my experiences in going through the book.  I'd highly recommend the book if you'd like to learn more about colour theory and how to choose colours with more confidence and explore different options. 

The first exercise involved choosing a warm and cool purple and a warm and cool green.  My choices were #74 Plum and #80 Iris in the purple and #125 Grass and #118 Clover for the green.

my choices for the first exercise

my choices at the top and Rachel's choices underneath

the first two blocks

I'm looking forward to the next exercise.  By the time we're finished, I might have enough bear paw blocks to make a quilt!