Blanca Peak Sunrise

 Since Kaja proposed Picking a Palette I keep coming back to this photo by my sister. The Navaho know Blanca Peak as the Sacred Mountain to the East. It feeds immeasurable sand into the Great Sand Dunes National Park along its southwestern side. 

Blanca Peak, CO

Using the scrap bag, here's what I made. Although I love the mountain and the foreground, I decided to concentrate on the sky for my quilt. It's such a wonderful mix of grey, greyed purples, clear sky blues, and brilliant pinks.

Blanca Sunrise baby quilt

This is posted on my blog, too, but needs to be here. Thanks for a great prompt, Kaja. 

Ann

AHIQ Prompt January 2021: String Tuliip QAL

A new year means a new promt. As always, many ideas run through my mind but something different kept coming to the top. Repeated comments about the angled strings and the tulips gave me the idea for a quilt along instead of a prompt. So this time, let's have an Electric Socket Shock QAL. I was asked if there's a pattern. Answer: Of course not. I was making it up every step of the way. But it's a simple variation of a string quilt and those are always useful for clearing out the scraps. And it will force me to write something down.

Electric Socket Shock quilt

I'll start writing guidelines for us and we'll head out. Remember, they are merely suggestions. Change anything you want or go in a completely different directions. That's why we love improv.

Interestingly the tulip quilts were constructed like kawandi. I started with the border and worked my way in. So we will do the same with this QAL. We will start with the string blocks and then move to the string tulips. You can make one or both parts and add your own variations. 

String Tulips quilt

My previous quilts are about 40" square - baby quilt sized but you should choose a size that works for you. The final size will determine how many blocks you need to make. And BTW, my blocks were 5.5" unfinished/ 5" finished. Feel free to change those up, too.

You'll need assorted strings and scraps, about 2/3 yard for the background {more if you make a larger quilt}, and some leftover binding for the tulip stems. Or you can pull from your stash. Or go shopping. I also used newsprint for a base. You can do that, or nothing. If you sew with a fabric base, you should increase your seam allowances due to the extra bulk.

This is posted here and on FretNotYourself. Are you in? Let me know in the comments. If it's a go, we will start sewing next month and continue monthly.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Crossed String Tulips

I made a bunch of these angled string blocks to empty my overflowing scrap bag. There is no center string color or even theme. I thought they would look great but this set didn't quite cut it. Time for recovery mode. 

Electric Socket Shock string blocks

Fortunately Kaja's latest prompt about Positive Thinking brought to mind all the string tulips I've admired for years. By removing the center sixteen blocks there was room to create crossed tulips. 

Eight of those removed blocks were used to create tulip petals so they weren't wasted. After making a couple of lighter ones, I realized the blocks with black or navy strings added the necessary depth to the tulips. 

This was just the distraction I needed. Thanks for encouraging us to "think lovely thoughts," Kaja. {Who remembers that line from Peter Pan?} More information on my blog.