Monday, September 11, 2017

Star Collage

Today I was able to spend some uninterrupted time with my sewing machine - so I got busy putting some more of the small stars together for the Phebe project:

I took the pictures of the blocks super fast, so there are some stray threads in there, and the blocks aren't necessarily straight in the photos, but you can see that I was having fun working through some of the cute scraps I've got laying around.

The thing that really made me happy is that all the points are nice and accurate - I only had to make adjustments to a few of them. I'm looking forward to getting some brighter reproductions and cute fussy cuts in there. 80 of these blocks are required, so with these and the one I made the other day, I only have 70 to go!

In other news - recently I received a sweet comment from Diane Smith. I wasn't able to respond to her personally as her email address came up 'no reply', but I can address her questions here. First up - I think Diane might be a little confused about my identity - I'm not Lori, but I'm slowly working on one of Lori Smith's beautiful projects - but if I'm to be mixed up with someone, what an honour! Diane asked me how I select fabrics for my blocks, ie, sticking to collections/reproductions etc.

Well, this is a tough question to answer - in that I don't have any magic formula that I follow. If I'm working on a vintage style project, I tend to use vintage style fabrics, but I'm not really super fussy about collections. My main concerns are the value of the fabric - does it read dark, medium or light. Do I like the fabric, and do I think the colours play nicely together. Sometimes I just mix things all together and then select a unifying fabric like sashing to keep it all together. Honestly, the best way to go is just trust your instinct, and use things you like.

Diane also asked about my applique technique - I mostly needleturn applique, but for the last project I used the freezer paper on top technique which is demonstrated beautifully on Teresa's blog.

I hope this helps Diane, and thank you for commenting.

That's it from me today - tomorrow morning I get to pick up my quilt from the show and any ribbons etc that go with her - I'm looking forward to bringing my creation home!

4 comments:

Kyle said...

What wonderful Pheobe blocks. Actually having a stash is important. You could never find the variety at one time or in one place.

Janet said...

Blocks look great together. Love the fabric choices, what fabric is the girl with the toy, very vintage looking. Thank you for sharing and I know you can't wait to get your quilt and ribbons. Congrats again.

Diane said...

Oh dear! I got your name wrong. Sorry! Are you Tara? Your name is pretty hard to find - you should put that in your profile! Thank you so much for addressing my questions. Your quilts are FABULOUS!!

Teresa Rawson said...

I love your new blocks (and your scrap collection)! I don't know if I could make it through 80 of anything, but keeping it scrappy would help me a lot. I it must be fun to pick up a quilt and have a lovely pile of ribbons to go with it. Congrats on your recent wins! I think your version of the Caswell quilt is not only my favorite, but it may be my favorite quilt of all time. Your colorful sashing of all the little triangles really compliments all the curves and sweetness of the applique blocks.

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