Cobbled Nines - Part II

I sometimes wonder why I take such a long time to get my quilts quilted and finished.  This black and white beauty was made into a quilt top waaaayy back in 2014, as you can read in this blog post.  

It is probably one of my most favourite quilts of all time, made up from 'orphan' blocks where I co-ordinated the colours and went for a two-tone look.  It was also part of my black and white series.

Cobbled Nines - perhaps I should have had a different angle for the photo
- there's the shadow of a tree going across it! :)

The photo below is from my original blog post when I had just put the top together.

Below are some detail shots - I really, really should have thought about the shadows!  Two detail shots and one of the backing fabric which has some very cute deer on it.

I quilted cobbled nines with a metallic silver thread, using a clamshell design on my domestic sewing machine.  There were a couple issued with thread breaking, until I remembered to adjust my top thread tension on my machine - oh what a difference that made!  

Cobbled Nines was donated to "Gather the Girls" as one of their silent auction items and it raised $280.  I would have liked to have seen it go for $375, as that was the set reserve price, however, the lady who won it is very happy.

My second quilt that I donated to Gather the Girls is Spring Splash.  Upon re-reading my post about Spring Splash, I had completely forgotten that I was going to donate it to a different cause!  So, here I am now, donating it to another very worthy cause.

Snap scrap sewing...

Look at these beautifully laid out fabrics!  That glorious rainbow of colour!  I had such big plans back in 2020 - yes, that's right, 2020.  It was a time of lockdowns and I was bored.  A search online found this blog  and her plans for a 'snap, scrap, sew-a-long'.  Simple blocks designed to use up all of those left-over 2.5in pieces and some great plans included for layouts. 

From either side of my layout table, the colours just looked wonderful together.

I had to pack it all up when I changed furniture in my sewing room and purchased a new machine.  This project got shoved into a container and shelved until a couple of weeks ago, when I decided that I had had enough of the lid sliding off and falling out of the cupboard each time I slid the door open.

When I put the container onto the table and took the lid off, the fabric pieces sort of bubbled out and over the top, like they had decided they didn't want to be squashed anymore...

In this container, I found that I had packed away 170 x 6in blocks, all neatly pinned together into groups of 10 blocks, sorted by colour!  As the call from the Very Snuggly Quilt program is for 48x60in quilts for teenage boys, I was able to use 80 blocks in this first quilt.....

Sadly, night-time indoor photos don't do the colours any justice.  The blue-green quilt, above, has since been sewn together and has a backing and binding to match. It simply needs a good press and then quilting.

And... another 80 blocks in this second quilt... 

... which will have a pieced backing of modern fabric with writing on it and the remaining 10 green blocks added in for some interest. 

My goal for the next few days is to complete the sewing and make the backing for the yellow-grey-green quilt and then, figure out what quilts to make with the remaining fabrics.  Do I want to make more of the 'snap-scrap' blocks, or, do I make something else from them?  I am not sure.

The block patterns can be found here  

It's a block party!

Blocks, blocks and more blocks!  During the 'down-time' that is the week between Christmas and New Year, I discovered that a "block party" was going to happen during the year.

The lady running it is local to me, which is very nice and it's fun to be able to catch up with some of the other participants from time to time.

I am such a sucker for a sampler quilt.  I really didn't want to buy anything for this project, so I pulled out an untouched bundle of Fat Quarters and background fabric that I had purchased for a different project, gave them a wash and got started.  Thank goodness I washed the fabrics - there was quite a bit of colour run from some of the darker prints.  eeekkk....

Chosen fabric pack + grey sashing/border fabric.

Some of the blocks are funky and modern, others more traditional.  I'm loosely following the colours announced by the Rainbow Scrap Challenge each month, with the aim of having a nice colourwash across my quilt top.

January Blocks - Blue

These blocks are fun to make and at 6in finished, they are a nice size and not too fiddly.  

February Blocks - Pinkish

I decided not long after starting this project that I would set my blocks with sashings and cornerstones.  I cut all of the sashing pieces in the first week and the cornerstones are being cut from left over block fabrics.  So far, as I have completed the full set of blocks each month, I have immediately attached the sashings and cornerstones, which hopefully will speed up the final construction when it happens.

March Blocks - Green

The colour for April is purple and I am yet to start the April blocks.  I usually wait until the last weekend of the month, make them all at once and then put the tub away again.  I have found that this works for me and frees my mind to work on other things in-between.

What types of quilts are you a sucker for?