Sunday, February 1, 2015

January 2014 - Fresh Sewing Day

Rumble

I'll start my look back at January's projects with Rumble. She was made with blocks by my bee mates and I from the Free Bee and I went to town with the quilting. I have been napping under this quilt all month and I am totally in love with her. I am looking forward to a chance to make and quilt another modern quilt like this soon.

  Hush

Hush has been handing on my shelves - exactly where that photo was taken - as I love seeing her every day. I am so surprised at how much I love this quilt as I really thought she would be too busy for me. The choice of prints and the arrangements give this quilt a modern feel, but she is also so much like a traditional crazy quilt with straight edges. Now I want to make many more of this style of quilt.

Flash

And then I started and finished Flash in a couple of weeks. I'd never made a wonky log cabin quilt - I had made many blocks for bees, but not a quilt. I really enjoyed making this one and will make a tutorial later this week for those who asked.

Flash

A bit of a bonus quilt is the back of Flash. I have been thinking a lot of strata quilts (is that a thing?, anyway, quilts with layers of colours) and Stephanie's bee blocks from Bee Sewcial also had me thinking of curved piecing. Thus the back of Flash, which could easily be a quilt front too.

My second Block for Stephanie for #beesewcial She asked for improv blocks inspired by the glass work of Chihuly. This one is just over 12.5" square.

This brings me to Stephanie's bee blocks for Bee Sewcial. My bees from last year all ended and Stephanie, from Spontaneous Threads and I started brainstorming about putting together a bee that was exactly what we wanted to do in a bee. Bee Sewcial was born and Stephanie got us off to a great start asking for blocks inspired by the glasswork of Dale Chihuly.

Chihuly inspired improv block for Stephanie in #beesewcial It's about 15" x 20", not trimmed much. @spontaneousthreads

These blocks were great fun to make and came together without any stress. They have me thinking a lot about curved improv piecing too.

My scrap Chihuly inspired improv block for Stephanie, for #beesewcial

This last one used the scraps from the first two. Now the admission, I have been carrying Stephanie's blocks in my bag for probably two weeks and have yet to mail them. Tomorrow for sure. There is no real good excuse except that I was busy, I best get these blocks and some other overdue packages  packed up this afternoon and ready to go.

January was a very busy month of non-quilting activities at my house, and I am fairly surprised to see that I finished some quilts too. I missed out on some of the monthly round up posts last year, but I am determined to get back into this habit for the coming year.

Fresh Sewing Day

I am linking up with Lynne at Lily's Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day and I hope you will join in too and also visit some of the links there too, they are always so inspiring.

Best,


Leanne

14 comments:

Cassandra said...

You have so many beautiful finishes! I have always loved the work of Dale Chihuly, and the blocks you created are really inspiring.

Kathy@KayakQuilting said...

Beautiful finishes! But oh my, all that intense matchstick quilting in one month! Impressive!

Deb@asimplelifequilts said...

That is a LOT of thread... wow! Your finishes are amazing.

Beth said...

I just love your finishes and the quilting you do. Always fun to see them again.

Teresa Palmer said...

Love your dense quilting! Can I ask what thread you use?

Mystic Quilter said...

Beautiful collection of quilts, just lovely to see them all.

Rachel said...

What lovely work!

Debbie said...

Some beautiful quilt finishes there!!

Unknown said...

Absolutely adore the Hush quilt!! How inspiring!

Katy Cameron said...

Lovely mix of brights and neutrals this month :o) Oh, and welcome to the camera challenge (sorry, big catch up!)

elle said...

Good for you! I think Flash is my favourite- front and back!

Nicky said...

Loving all your January makes Leanne - no surprise there. Think Hush is my favourite! And I love your first Dale Chihuly inspired block - looks like flames to me!

Carla said...

I want to stare at them all too! Just gorgeous

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

January was a month of lovely makes!