More catching up

The other day I posted my progress on the Vice Versa Block-of-the-Month quilt, which I really like.  But it's been straightforward, especially with the color choices.  I don't really obsess over which combination I'm going to use every month because they are all very similar within each color scheme.  

My Lucky Stars BOM is another story entirely.  I can spend HOURS obsessing over the color combinations, trying to figure out how to make the "rays" pop, and which parts I want to be solid versus scrappy.  I think the first half has come together very nicely, despite some choices I really questioned.

Halfway through my Lucky Stars BOM

The bottom middle block (from March) has been a real pain.  I just really didn't like it when it first came together.  I thought the green in the corners was just hideous.  Here's what it originally looked like: 

Not quite right

I don't think instagram did it any favors.  I really thought about completely doing it over, and never mixing yellow and grey again.  But then I had an idea... it's the only one without any sort of "floral" pattern, and the green looks flat.  So I swapped out one triangle in each corner with a floral triangle and voila!!  I can't believe how much better it looks!  I may be imagining things, but it just gives it some depth, and maybe a little prettiness to go with the grungy middle.  I think I'll keep her.  Now the one on the bottom left is my least favorite, but she really goes well with all the others so she's here to stay for now.  The lesson here is don't mix light yellow with grey unless you're going for some weird industrial look.  And I need a few more blocks with small pops of black, I think the orange star looks so good with the contrast.  

Stars for the 4th- hope everyone has a good one!!!

Catching up

It's been while!!  I moved apartments and with all the packing, unpacking, sorting, etc, I haven't had much time to "waste" on sewing... but I'm slowly catching up!  Let's start with my Vice Versa BOM... I've managed to sew three months in the past few weeks.

And here's how it looks so far with all 6 months... halfway there!

Weekend Update

So it's been exactly a month since I last posted here.  Not on purpose... I just happened to look at the date and realize that I haven't written anything since EXACTLY a month ago.  What's NOT a coincidence is that I'm writing this on a Sunday, after a fairly productive weekend (I found a new place to live and just signed the lease!).  I also found some time to do a "little" sewing :)

First up, let's go ahead and show what I just finished... this month's Vice Versa blocks.  

 
I've never done the bear paws before, but I already love HSTs so these were just fun!  The bold colors also really make me happy.  Here are the close-ups:

It's going to be such a happy quilt!

Next up is the other BOM I'm working on, Lucky Stars.  

I have to admit, I'm not sold on this one.  I actually don't like the match-matchy look of the grey and yellow, and I think the mint in the corners is kind of atrocious.  I am clearly still having challenges combining colors (something I spend a lot of time on, I'm not sure it really comes naturally for me).  However, when I look at it with the other two blocks so far, I start to like it a little more.  In fact, it's not so bad having this grungy block, especially if I end up adding a few more florals in future blocks.  I don't want the final product to look TOO pretty, and this block certainly does the trick there.  And at the end of the day, I'm not doing it again, so it's here to stay.  Here's where it breaks up the prettiness of the others... see?  Not too bad I guess...

And finally, I made a pillow!  I finally used the LouLouthi velveteen from Anna Marie Horner I've been hoarding for a while, and whadda ya know, it's not that hard to make a pillow.  And this fabric is GORGEOUS!  It really stands out on all my neutral old furniture.

That's all for now... happy weekend!

February Vice Versa Blocks

I finished up this month's vice versa blocks in short order this morning- I like the half-square triangles so this one was a breeze. I'm really liking all the colors together!  What a great way to finish up the weekend. 

Lovely piles of squares and scraps:

I even got to practice a little chain piecing:

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

January's Vice Versa Blocks

I finished these a while ago but forgot to post them- January's installment of the Vice Versa Block of the Month.  

It's intended for solid colors, and while I think they can be spectacular, I just can't bring myself to not use prints so I have a spectrum of "blenders" to achieve that effect.  I just love the simplicity of the blocks and how crisp they came out (see my last post for a little insight into how angsty I get when centers don't match up). 

A close-up of vice...

And a close-up of versa...

Happy Wednesday!!

January's Lucky Stars Blocks

I finished my first paper pieced blocks for the Lucky Stars Block of the Month- and I have to say, they were harder than I thought!  I like the way they came out in the end, but man, they took me a while to perfect.   

It didn't take me too long to catch onto the paper piecing technique, which is fun except for the excessive amounts of scraps I seem to end up with (I tried to eyeball the blocks and cut smaller pieces, but after sewing and flipping a half dozen times only to discover I had shortchanged the size, I gave up and cut them according to the directions).

Not even a fraction of all the scraps I created...

The biggest problem I had was with the centers which just didn't line up right.  I found a few tutorials online and tried the suggestion of putting a pin in the center and sewing from there outside in either direction.  That evened up the center, but then I had to go back and re-align some of the outer seams.  Biggest lesson: starch starch starch!  Things went a lot easier on the January block when I heavily starched right off the bat to keep the bias from creating too much stretch.  

On the left are the yucky center seams, and the right they are somewhat fixed.

These took a lot longer for me to make than I thought they would, but there was a lot of trial and error involved.  I'm looking forward to February when I can hopefully put all these lessons to good use.

Happy Tuesday!

New Year, New Projects, Part 2

So I messed up!  Actually, I didn't so much mess up as change my mind.  Yesterday I posted about one of two BOMs (Blocks of the Month) that I'm doing this year.  I decided first to use the Nordika selection below for my Vice Versa BOM from Gen X quilters.  But then I started working on the fabric selection for my second BOM, Lucky Stars from Don't Call Me Betsy, and I realized the two were perfect for the opposite ones!  So I changed my mind, or rather the fabrics showed me how wrong I was to begin with.  

So here's the revised selection for Vice Versa:

You can see how that's going to work really well with the 5-color scheme in the quilt:

And here's what I'm going to use for the Lucky Stars paper piecing BOM:


The colors really lend themselves to the shading, and the blacks and grays are really going to pop.  I don't know what I'm going to do with the prints yet, but I just can't put them away, so you'll definitely see a few mixed in.


It's going to be a busy year and I can't wait to see how they both turn out!

New Year, New Projects, Part 1

Fabrics #viceversabom, a photo by hipsterquilter on Flickr.

I don't have a cool retrospective for 2013, since I really just started this blogging thing, so I thought I would just go straight to what I have planned for 2014. First, I signed up for a couple of Blocks of the Month, or BOMs. I've never done one before, so now I'm doing two! First is the Gen X Quilters Vice Versa BOM.  Besides having the greatest blog name ever (I TOTALLY should have thought of it first), I really like their blocks and I'm excited to work with solids (and some patterns, as you can see above... I can't resist). I'm going with Art Gallery solids in Nordika-themed colors with some Nordika thrown in. I haven't decided yet, but I'm probably going to have to get one of the cool panels that comes with the collection. I have a year to decide :)  I already love the Art Gallery fabrics, both solids and prints are soooo soft and the colors are so rich. I can't wait to dig in and see the blocks come together.

Here's the link if you want to join in:

Almost the weekend, so hopefully I'll have something to share by Sunday. Unless the Federal Government gets overwhelmed by a few feet of snow suddenly tomorrow morning and I find myself with lots of time and nowhere to be. Fingers crossed!!!