Friday 9 May 2014

An early ALYOF finish!






My goal foA Lovely Year of Finishes this month was to make 6 blocks for my Bluebird Park quilt (I'm #60 on the goal link up).  If you haven't heard me mention this quilt before, it's because I haven't!  I bought a charm pack a while ago with a couple of FQs. Then I bought some half metres of the bunnies. Then half metres of the sketch-type fabric.  Then some more FQs.  Enough was enough, clearly I love this line, so time to make something with it.  Some of the bunnies will be put aside for the bunny quilt.



I don't have a pattern for this. I'm kind of winging it. I knew I wanted to show off some of the charms, so thought I'd start with some star-type blocks.  After cutting the fabrics for 8 blocks, I thought I'd have a play around before committing to a block.  Above we have option 1.



This is option 2, these are both sort of like Economy blocks, but a bit different.




Here is the original idea of a star.  I was going to have solid corner blocks, but the HSTs sort of happened!


And a star with the corners turned round.  At this point I was going to publish these photos and ask you which option you thought I should go for.  In the meantime I laid all the cut parts (the flying geese and the HSTs had been pieced) on the floor in the star formation and I knew that was the one.  So I sewed.



Phew, it takes a long time to piece 8 of these babies!



I now need a plan for the rest of the quilt  There's a gorgeous floral fabric, but it needs big pieces to really see it, so I'm thinking of having  some squares of that in the quilt.  These blocks are 8" finished, I'm thinking of sashing them to make the 10".  I also thought I might sash everything, but having gone online I can't find a single shop that has enough of one of the sketchy prints left - other than shops charging £3.50 an FQ!!  I'm going to make some more block - no idea what!!  Then I'll see.  If it needs sashing, I might pick a Kona or Klona to use.

Anyway, that was my long winded way of saying that, even though it's early in the month, I've smashed my ALYOF goal!

19 comments:

Sarah in Stitches said...

Yay! I'm glad you went with the star formation, that was the one I wanted to vote for. This is going to be a lovely quilt! :D

margaret said...

you have a great variety of blocks there, I wonder how they would work if you used them all together on another project

Ella and Nesta said...

Your blocks are beautiful! They really show off this lovely fabric.

Pam @Threading My Way said...

An awesome block, Wendy!!!

Rachel said...

Well done for smashing your goal!

Melody said...

This is looking fabulous

JoJo said...

The hedgehog fabric is adorable!

Sandra :) said...

I like the star design you chose - with the corner HST blocks the other way round, it doesn't look like a star any more - it looks like an entirely different design. Star = pretty! If you could get some yardage of the large floral you mentioned, you could alternate plain blocks of that, with the star blocks - that way you could make it larger without having to do sashing or lots of piecing of more star blocks :D

Kerryp77 said...

Sometimes you just know! The stars look brilliant. Love the colour combo of the teal and yellow

Fiona said...

those blocks are going to look great together.....
Hugz

Joy McD said...

The blocks are just gorgeous!! Looking forward to seeing them all put together! xxx

Jane said...

Well done you! It'll be a lovely quilt. Love the hedgehogs

Celtic Thistle said...

Congratulations on smashing your ALYoF goal so quickly, the blocks look lovely. I like the sound of the big floral blocks alternating with the stars. Could you group them in fours with a narrow solid sashing then join the resulting large blocks with a broader solid sashing? I suppose it depends on how big you want the quilt to be really.

Ruth said...

Looks like fun playing with the layout - I like the one you chose. I get stuck sometimes trying to do something with a large print and this sounds like a good idea! Hope you find more fabric, it's looking lovely so far!

Jo Ferguson said...

Congrats on smashing your goals. Hooooray!!!! It's fun to see the different options for the blocks. I'm loving the direction you're headed with this quilt.

Melissa said...

Congratulations on getting more than your goal done. I love the block you chose!

auntie sash said...

Those are adorable. I love that line too and have various bits and pieces waiting to become....something. How about making one really big block for the center. Same block as the ones you made, but really big so that the pieces can show off the larger prints. Then you could frame that with the smaller blocks - perhaps alternating with solid squares or fussy cut squares. Hmmm - I think I need to go home and play with those little hedgehogs. Good job on the finish!

auntie sash said...

Oh - a thought on fabrics. I know international shipping is expensive, but Missouri Star Quilt Co has all the Bluebird Park in stock. Their shipping is less than most, so maybe a place to check out? Good luck!

Sharon Dawn said...

I love your star blocks! I might be partial to them ;-). I look forward to seeing what you decide to do.