Fibonacci Twist - A Work in Progress

I decided to take my love of the Fibonacci sequence and my love of solids and challenge myself to see what I could do with it using my scraps.

I made these Fibonacci blocks several years ago and it sat in my WIP pile.

I pulled that out, took off the largest squares and made more 8.5" by 13.5" squares from my scraps.

Playing with the layout. Hmm, no. 

That's a little more like it. Now for a background that would make those colours pop. 

Let's go with charcoal grey. Yep, that's it. A finished top! 

I could see making more quilts with these blocks and my scraps. 

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Marking Your Space

B-b-b-bonanza! Bundle Bonanza, that is, is on at Sew Sisters this weekend. Great bundles of coordinating fat quarters at delicious prices (yes, I haven't had breakfast yet). On until tomorrow!

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By some scheduling miracle a couple of weekends ago, we got to spend a Saturday morning hanging out at home instead of the arena. Even better, I could spend it in my sewing studio sewing with my boys. Woo hoo!

I've been promising them placemats for some time. I pulled out the solid scrap bin and had them choose what colours they'd like.

Micah's:

Daniel's:

Patrick's:

Daniel's is finished and with a little luck, we may just finish the other two up this weekend!

Have a great weekend all!

TGIFF! - Night Flight

Oh happy, happy TGIFF! all! I'm thrilled to be sharing my finished Night Flight quilt. This quilt started with the scraps from Quilt Fix.

I used the leftover triangles from the 45 degree seams from Quilt Fix to make half-square triangles (HSTs) and then paired them into flying geese units. These flying geese then begged to be put into rainbow formation. Who am I to say no when they lined up so nicely?

We discussed how much negative space was enough and then the quilting options. The 'quick' part of this quilt ended when we got to the quilting though. I really love this walking foot technique, but it definitely doesn't fall into the 'quick' category. I think I spent more time quilting Night Flight than all the other parts of the quilt process combined.

It was so worth it. I'm so pleased with the finished look and the flow of colours in the quilting thread (different colour for each flying geese unit). The walking foot quilting in moon ray formation has all the precision I was hoping for.

Finished Size: 24" by 29"
Fabric: Kona Charcoal, Scraps from a Kona Dark Jelly Roll
Thread: Aurifil (2630 for the grey and many other numbers for the flying geese), Guterman, Coats & Clark

An InLinkz Link-up

Modern Block Monday - Leggings Block

The moment I saw Elizabeth Hartman's Knee Socks block, I was smitten. It's a block that finishes at 24" though, a little too large to be asking my OMQG Bee mates this month. I decided to do a cross between her Knee Socks block and the blocks I'll be making for this Fibonacci Flow design.

I give you...Leggings. ;)

It's a 12" finished block, fun for stash picking. I couldn't rightfully say stash busting because it just doesn't use all that many scraps, but it is fun.

Wanna make one yourself?

Cutting Directions:

Background fabric (charcoal grey in this case):
A - Four (4) - 1.5" x 6.5"
B - Six (6) - 2.5" x 6.5"
D - Two (2) - 2" x 6.5"

Scraps:

C - Ten (10) - 1" x 6.5"

Layout:

1) Sew the pieces together in each of the columns according to this layout diagram.

2) Sew the two columns together.

I'll be providing the charcoal grey for my bee mates and asking them to scrap bust the scraps so I can get a good variety of fabrics. I'll also be asking them to keep the columns separate so I can mix and match them with other blocks.

Here are a few designs I've been playing with for this block:

All About Those Leggings: 

I Just Need Some Space - Lap:

I Just Need Some Space - Twin:

Enjoy!

Night Flight - A Finished Top

Quick Fix > Quick Scraps > Quick Top! Well, I couldn't get that strip of HSTs out of my head so I ended up sticking with those Kona scraps from Quick Fix and pairing it with some Kona Charcoal. Very, very happy with the piecing -- most of the points actually meet! :D

Now I'm playing with the placement of the strip. 

Leaning (ha ha) towards asymmetry:

More negative space:

Centred:

Still more negative space:

Opinions always welcome! 

Linking up with Scraptastic Tuesday and Oh Scrap! Check them out for some scrappy goodness.

Quick Fix Scraps - A Work in Progress

Hi all, happy Friday! It's been a good, but long week. I thought I'd ring in the weekend by playing with the triangular scraps from Quick Fix. I made some HSTs.

Now I'm playing with them on the design wall. I'm really liking this effect, but I will keep playing with layout.

I'll probably share some of the layouts on Instagram 'cause I'm now on Instagram too! If you are on Instagram, you can find me there at quiltmatters.

Oh, and did you hear? Sew Sisters Quilt Shop is having a Free Shipping event until Sunday on all orders within Canada. Woo hoo! Enjoy!

Have a great weekend!

Modern Block Monday - Flip!

The November block for our Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild bee was simple and straightforward. Kirstin asked us to make 15 wonky HSTs (tutorial) using our scraps with a background she provided. We were to leave the blocks separate so she could mix them all together. I had fun revisiting scraps from a lot of the projects I made this year.

Once I had them made, I played a little with the layout:

Flipped them this way:

Flipped them around again:

Really intrigued with this last layout. Thinking wonky Christmas trees. Must be the season. LOL! 

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Scrap{Bee} 2.0

I was planning on sharing the results of my minimalist quilt exercise today, but when I started taking pictures this morning, there were some rather noticeable water stains from removing a stain the other day. So it's in the wash right now. Fingers crossed! Lesson learned - don't bother spot cleaning a white quilt, just wash the whole thing! Barring any other quilty hiccups, I'll share it tomorrow.

No worries though because the Blogger's Quilt Festival starts today! Woo Hoo! I love this festival and always come away inspired and motivated to try something new. Thanks to Amy for organizing such a great event!

I decided to share my Scrap{Bee} 2.0 for the festival. It certainly feels like my biggest quilty accomplishment (literally and figuratively) over the last few months and I'm just so happy with how it turned out. :)

This quilt began as a challenge to use my more traditional fabric scraps in a modern design. I enlisted the help of my Don't Worry {Bee} Happy bee mates in 2012-13 for making most of the blocks. Huge thanks to these wonderful women:

Katie @ There & Back
Charlotte @ Twelfth Zodiac
Chelsea @ Pins and Bobbins
Elyse @ ElyseSusanDesign
Alisha @ A Squared Craft Affair
Marian @ LookWhatLadyFaceMade
Heather @ Winding Bobbins
Rebecca @ Sew Festive
Bianca @ Sweet Diesel Designs

Previous posts about this quilt and how I made it can be found here, here, here, and here.

The full frontal:

Each coloured square is quilted with a different motif in the coordinating colour. The background was improv quilted using a cream coloured Aurifil thread (thread colours below).

The backing is pieced with scraps from the front and some beige yardage from my stash.

This quilt has been a test at almost every step of the way, but I've learned so much and tried some new things throughout the process. My lessons learned can be found here.

Fabrics: Colours - scraps, Neutrals - Kona Parchment, Raffia, Bone, Oyster, Ivory, Natural, Cream, Eggshell, Champagne, Putty, Tan, Wheat, Sand and Essex Linen. Backing - Scraps

Thread: Aurifils 2000, 2314, 2140, 4093, 1243, 1320, 1135, 2581, 2740, 2460, 2870, 5017, 2875, 5124, 1104, 1100, 2885, 1240 and Gutermann 2626

Batting: Hobbs Heirloom

Finished size: 86.5" by 86.5".

I'm putting this in the ROYBGIV category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Hope you get a chance to check out the inspiration at the Festival and participate!

TGIFF! - Scrap{Bee} 2.0!

If you haven't had a chance to enter the Sew Sisters Quilt Shop giveaway yet, you can do so here. It's sew sweet!

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Also, I'll be teaching another Free Motion Quilting Sampler workshop on Thursday, May 22nd at The Country Quilter in Richmond, Ontario from 10-4 p.m. There are only a few spots left. Very exciting!

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On to the main event! Scrap{Bee} 2.0 is done! Woo hoo! The silver lining of having a cold last week was that I felt totally fine just sitting my butt down on the couch and finishing the binding, while watching movie after movie.

This quilt was started with my Don't Worry {Bee} Happy bee in 2012-13. I wanted to challenge myself to use my more traditional fabric scraps in a modern design. Thank you, thank you, thank you to my bee mates for making most of the blocks:

Katie @ There & Back
Charlotte @ Twelfth Zodiac
Chelsea @ Pins and Bobbins
Elyse @ ElyseSusanDesign
Alisha @ A Squared Craft Affair
Marian @ LookWhatLadyFaceMade
Heather @ Winding Bobbins
Rebecca @ Sew Festive
Bianca @ Sweet Diesel Designs

Previous posts about this quilt and how I made it can be found here, here, here, and here.

The full frontal:

Each coloured square is quilted with a different motif in the coordinating colour. The background was improv quilted using a cream coloured Aurifil thread (thread colours below).

The backing is pieced with scraps from the front and some beige yardage from my stash.

As I've mentioned before, this quilt has been a test at almost every step of the way, but I've learned so much and tried some new things throughout the process:

• First time doing improv piecing.
• First time using Essex Linen. Definitely pre-wash!
• First time finishing the quilt top and then taking it apart again to change the layout. 
• First time trying this binding technique (Thanks Heather!).  
• This design does not use as many scraps as I was hoping it would and way more Kona neutrals. LOL!
• Use colour catchers for blocking a quilt too, not just for washing the quilt once it's done. SprayNWash OxiAction worked though. Phew!
• Essex linen is thicker than Kona, but it is only noticeably so in the binding where it is doubled. 
• This quilt really drove home the point that the quilting can really shrink the size of the quilt so take that into account when making your quilt top. It was 93" square before quilting and now it's 86.5". There was a little trimming to square it up, but that's crazy shrinkage!
• First time doing an indoor photo shoot using lights and a tripod, as recommended by Maria Elkins' tutorial and the Shoot That Quilt! site. Getting better!

Fabrics: Colours - scraps, Neutrals - Kona Parchment, Raffia, Bone, Oyster, Ivory, Natural, Cream, Eggshell, Champagne, Putty, Tan, Wheat, Sand and Essex Linen. Backing - Scraps

Thread: Aurifils 2000, 2314, 2140, 4093, 1243, 1320, 1135, 2581, 2740, 2460, 2870, 5017, 2875, 5124, 1104, 1100, 2885, 1240 and Gutermann 2626

Batting: Hobbs Heirloom

Finished size: 86.5" by 86.5".

Now I have a quilt for our guest bed. Who's coming for a visit? ;)

This is also my first finish for my Q2 FAL goals. :)


Linking up with Laura at Quokka Quilts for TGIFF! Come join us!

Modern Block Monday - Confetti

Happy Monday! Pam chose this fabulous Confetti block (inspired by Megan’s Party of Twelve quilt from Block Party — The Modern Quilting Bee) for October for my Simply Solids Carmine group and provided a tutorial on her blog. Confetti was so much fun! I'll definitely be doing this one again for my Modern Block Sampler.

The colours are off in the photo -- it was raining and my camera was being temperamental -- I'd get the aqua right in one photo, but then the solid scraps would be too dark. Then I'd get some of the solid scraps right and the aqua would be washed out. My poor camera's is on its last legs.

Other blocks in this Modern Block Monday series are:

• Lucky Pieces
• Modern Butterfly Block
• How Many Squares?
• Pinball Machine
• It's a Stretch
• Pogo Stick
• Everything Equal
• Woven Block
• Alleyways
• Boxed In
• Scrappy Asterisk
• Higgledy-Piggledy
• Binary
• Pebble Beach
• Parisian Star
• On The Fence - Modified
• Sew Mama Sew's October Block of the Month
• My Fibonacci block
• Diamond Ripples
• Four Acres
• Mondrian
• Sew Mama Sew's January Block of the Month
• Fractured Triangles
• Garden Lattice
• Selvage Strings
• Follow The Leader
• Sea Glass Steps

A Completed Scrap{Bee} Top!

I don't know. I just don't know whether I like this top on not. The goals for this quilt were to: 1) Use up scraps, 2) Provide an interesting block for my Don't Worry {Bee} Happy beemates last year, 3) Learn how to use neutrals more effectively, and 4) Do some improv piecing. I think I achieved the goals, but I'm just not sure how I feel with the resulting top.

I asked my bee mates last November to try to get the block to 16" square with the fabric I sent them. They did a wonderful job -- thanks bee mates! I ended up adding to the blocks to make them 18.5" by 18.5" or 18.5" by 20.5" so I could make a twin-sized quilt and made a number of other ones to complete the rainbow spectrum.

One of my bee mates added in some natural Essex Linen to her block and I quite liked it so I got some more and added some to the other blocks. It's the first time I used Essex Linen so I'm really, really glad I saw this post before I started using it.

I was all excited to use the Essex Linen at first, but now I'm not so sure. I'm also not sold on the darker tan. Too much contrast in the neutrals?

So far, the top measures 59" by 92". Maybe more neutral strips along the edges?

Hey, don't forget that TGIFF! OctoberQuest 2 starts today! Go link up your finished quilt projects at Quokka Quilts for a chance to win some fabulous prizes!

On My Design Wall - Su{Brrr}nova Scraps

Those who have been following for a while know one of my goals for this year is to make better use of my scraps -- my Scrap Bin Mission.

This is a project that is being made entirely with the scraps from Su{Brrr}nova...at least so far.

Su{Brrr}nova

I sewed up all the little leftover triangles from Su{Brrr}nova into more HSTs and then trimmed them to 2" squares.

I played around on my design wall until I found this design that I love.

Scraps from Su{Brrr}nova

I needed about 40 more HSTs for the outside blue diamond so I made them using the remnants of the backing and the blue fabrics. I still haven't cut into any yardage. The diamond medallion is about 28" wide at the moment.

I took the stripe HSTs and arranged them so they look like they are spinning.

Loving this arrangement so far...and it'll hang on my design wall as I quilt Hard Core so I can contemplate what to do next...

What are you working on?