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!

Red is a Neutral - triangles and strips

I have a top all sewn up!!

For those who read my blog you will know the story, for those who don't

here is a brief summary and a look at the top

which is considerably smaller than I had intended, but I found working

with so much red a little overwhelming and my idea of a throw

size quilt was abandoned.

In fact at one point I considered abandoning the project totally!

Perseverance crept to the fore

Measuring 33" square it's fine for hanging on a wall.

I had quite a lot of reds left over from my Chinese Coin wall quilt

and good use was made of my scrap strings.

The border took a little time to hit on the one I really felt

tied the whole together - Rings in Black from

KF Collective fabrics.

Wonder what the next Challenge will bring!!

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!