Backs and fronts

As I pieced today I was thinking about one or two aspects of quilting with shirts that give me pleasure, but that can also  be quite handy, so I thought I'd do a quick post and share them.

First of all, if I am using a fabric that I was sure would work but it just seems a bit...well, a bit too much (and actually works for yardage as well),  I have been known just turn it over and use the back.  Sometimes, like with this lovely blue, I think you'd be hard put to tell which side was meant to be the front (it's the all blue version).  

I know there are one or two prints that I have used in several quilts but always wrong side up,turning them from slightly garish to tastefully understated, or at least to less garish.

The second is that many shirts, even quite cheap ones, come with a lined yoke.  Occasionally this is just the same as the rest of the garment but often they are carefully co-ordinated.   The two fabrics in this centre strip came from the same shirt

as did the two on the right hand piece here

Someone else has matched the colours and thought about how the two designs complement each other; all I have to do is cut them apart and sew them together again.

Thinking about flowers

I have a plan for this, even if I have nowhere to start working on it.  

First steps,  I pulled out all my flower-y fabrics and washed them.  I never used to bother but now they are always going to end up in a quilt with old shirts, so it makes sense.

I realised as I was sorting how much smaller my stash has become since I switched to my current way of working. I knew I was buying less yardage but this brought it home.  I wondered briefly if eventually I would stop buying quilting fabrics altogether but I think it's unlikely (though if the pound continues to plummet...; I like the mix of shirts and stash and how it works for me.

Where, you might ask, is the shirty part of this plan?  The happy answer (and one I've never been able to use before) was that it was sitting in a box waiting  for inspiration to strike. I started these little butterflies a year or two ago in a half-hearted leader and ender-y sort of way.  I liked them, but ran out of steam before they amounted to anything interesting.

Now they are out of their box and I am hoping that they will come together nicely with some of my flower-y bits.  It's a start at least. 

Always Happy To Finish Another Adhoc. Improv. Quilt!

My Red is a Neutral quilt is finished! I've written all about it over at my blog. It's such a wordy post, I've almost bored with it myself. The post, not the quilt! I'll be having a hard time giving this quilt away though. It turned out so much better than I expected!

Lattice Quilt

Just wanted to pop in over here and give a shout out to Kaja and Ann. They always come up with the most interesting challenges!

Red is a Neutral

Since I'm not doing much actual sewing I thought I'd keep my blogging muscles working by doing a quick post reflecting on the Red is a Neutral challenge.

This is where I got to in the end.

Sadly it seems to be a difficult top to photograph and the bright sun here has washed out the colours too much.  I'll try again when it's cloudier.  In real life there are a pale green and a lovely lemon-y yellow which are virtually indistinguishable in this picture (though you can get a better idea here).

It's been an interesting exercise for me but I think on balance I'm happy that I met the brief.  There is a lot of red in this quilt but for me it works to enhance the blues, greens and yellows rather than demanding to be the centre of attention.  It's a useful notion to have up one's sleeve - that red can be used instead of, say, low volume options. 

I have also learned that if I stick with the same block for too long I get bored, then I kind of lose the will to sew at all, so if I want to work along these lines again I will need to build in variety, either by making more than one block or by changing scale or some other jiggery-pokery.

Starting without a plan

Finally I get to Red is a Neutral, though I have literally no clue now what I am about.  

I found these shirts:

and teamed them up with some reds from my stash (no pictures because I have shoved them in the washing machine, but there is an old Grunge and a couple of Oakshott bits).

So far so good, but it seemed very red.

So I added these:

I'm thinking that the bits of green, black, white and tan give me some options in terms of what else I will add.

These two could open it up even more.

I am torn since the one on the right almost deserves a quilt all to itself.  It's in the mix for now though.

Here they are all together.

Now I've got to team them up with some not-so-red fabrics and see where that gets me.