AHIQ July challenge - feeling flowery

Yes, for those of you still playing along, it's time for the start of the next challenge.  

It's summer - more or less, so the challenge is a simple one: make something flowery.  

My initial inspiration for this was this image of a tulip-y sort of flower, which rather made me think of some of Audrey's quilts.  So of course there are options for either basing a piece on applique or adding flowers to a pieced back, as Ann has done recently.

Another approach might be to try piecing flowers, in much the way that we free-piece trees or birds or buildings, or to find an appropriate traditional block and work from there.

Or just pull out some fabulous flower-y fabric and start there.

Or take a photo as a starting point for a colour scheme:

This photo of a Chinese tulip fields from The Guardian newspaper has been on my pinterest board for a while, as has this color vibrations post from the excellent MaryandPatch.

You could even piece something entirely unflowery and then use your quilting to add the flowers.

This can be as simple or as complex as you want, just embrace the joys of summer.

If you instagram, do tag your posts #ahiqflowers.

'Alice in Red' Block Gets Another Border, Yankee Puzzle Blocks in Red Spectrum for Red as Neutral.

'Alice in Red' block with new border, 17" square now.

Yankee Puzzle block quilt measures 32" square, it will soon have a 2" border all around.

More projects with 'Red as a Neutral' see more info at crazyvictoriana.blogspot.com.

Using up my red stash is very satisfying. I'm won over.

Here's to more sharing red as a neutral!

Not exactly following the rules of the challenge

I think this is going to end up being my "Red as a neutral" quilt.  It's going slowly but the important thing is that is progressing.  It isn't really very neutral but it is certainly using a lot of red.

For more information go to my other blog here.

Thanks for checkin' in,
Robin

The Color Red, Meet Alice

This is the first Alice and there will be more.

I've been piecing more Half Square Triangles for upcoming projects.

Using Spectrum Reds by Cotton & Steel.

Hello Quilting Friends!!!

This week I've been working on HSTs piecing them using Cotton & Steels' Spectrum Reds.

Very seldom have I ever used any collection exclusively. I think this is a first. I have some fun projects in mind and these reds just work together so well.

Then there's Alice. 

I've been reading Gwen Marston's book, 'Liberated Medallion Quilts', and I got enthused about the idea of using a pattern or 'recipe' to make several smallish quilts with different color ways and not all exactly alike but similar. You'll be able to tell they're related. What fun!

So Alice is the first in a series. I've used some fabric from Cotton & Steel, their Wonderland Collection, so the name Alice. (No I'm not being paid to talk about their fabric or use it). Who knows maybe I'll piece them all together into a big quilt.

And that is my latest adventure in the land of Red is a Neutral.

Happy Quilting!

(The weather finally cleared I think I have spring fever.)

Red is a Neutral... five more blocks

I didn't do much this week. (I don't even know why!) But I managed these.

I know I'm dyslexic, but even that doesn't explain the mistakes I made while making the three blocks I needed this week. So why do I have five, you ask. That story is on my blog. Be forewarned: it's not that interesting, but it is typical Mary reasoning.

Have a great weekend everyone!